By IANS,
New Delhi : The National Commission for Women (NCW) has ruled there was no sexual assault on an air hostess during a mid-air scuffle on board an Air India flight last month.
The NCW report was submitted to Civil Aviation Minster Praful Patel and Women and Child Development Minister Krishna Tirath Monday. The committee, headed by NCW member Wansuk Syiem, took nearly one and a half months for the probe.
The committee report says that there was indeed an altercation between the pilot and co-pilot with the flight purser and an air hostess on board the flight. But the committee established that there was no sexual harassment in the incident. The air hostess Komal Singh had levelled sexual harassment charges against the co-pilot a few days after the Oct 3 incident.
“The girl, along with the flight purser, was pushed out of the cockpit, which led to the air hostess sustaining an abrasion on her right arm. The captain during the course of altercation pushed the flight purser, Amit Khanna, and the air hostess, Komal Singh, out of the cockpit for the safety of the flight and the passengers,” the NCW report said.
The committee, however, maintained that “there was no reason for the commander to behave like that”.
The incident occurred on board the Sharjah-Lucknow-Delhi IC-884 flight Oct 3, when it was on its first leg.
The airline had grounded the pilots and the cabin crew after the Delhi Police registered a case of molestation against the pilots on the complaint filed by the air hostess.
A committee of state-run carrier Air India that probed the incident had termed Singh’s allegations of misbehaviour as baseless. The air hostess was issued a chargesheet for violation of the conduct rules.
The NCW committee has also hauled up Air India for issuing a chargesheet against the air hostess while its inquiry was on.
Syiem told IANS that they have recommended that the chargesheet be withdrawn.
On the air hostess filing an affidavit against the NCW in a court, she said: “If the air hostess was not confident of the NCW then she should have never filed a complaint with us, and by filing such affidavits against people who support her she is spoiling her own case.”