Shiv Sena's Gaikwad books Air India ticket again, airline cancels it

Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad has booked another ticket with Air India but it was cancelled today by the airline, days after all domestic carriers banned him from flying for assaulting an AI staffer.

Sources said that the MP had purchased an open ticket prior to the ban, which his staff had booked for tomorrow morning to travel from Mumbai to Delhi.

The ticket "has been cancelled", an Air India (AI) statement said.

The Shiv Sena MP, who is at the centre of a raging storm for assaulting an elderly Air India employee last Thursday, was earlier barred from flying by all major domestic airlines in an unprecedented step in Indian aviation history.

A day after the incident, the national carrier had cancelled a return ticket of the MP while IndiGo too had followed suit, forcing him to take a train to Maharashtra.

The MP from Maharashtra's Osmanabad, however, has continued to brazen it out and remained unapologetic about his conduct.

An FIR has been registered against him on the basis of the complaint lodged by Air India for repeatedly hitting 62-year-old Duty Manager R Sukumar with sandals on a Pune-Delhi flight after it landed. The MP was angry at not being given a business class seat though he had boarded an all-economy flight.