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IndiGo scuffle: Airline apologises to minister but says staff was doing his job

New Delhi: IndiGo airline on Wednesday apologised to the government over a brawl between one of its ground staff and a passenger, but maintained that the employee was "doing his work".
Civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju has sought an independent probe by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation after a video surfaced on Tuesday showing an IndiGo ground staff entering into a scuffle with passenger Rajeev Katiyal at the Delhi airport last month.
"At the very outset, let me start off by acknowledging that we were at fault and we not only apologise for the regrettable incident, we have also taken action," IndiGo President and Whole-time Director Aditya Ghosh wrote in a letter to Raju.
He said that he apologised to the passenger on the same day the incident took place and the employees involved were immediately suspended.
While giving a chronology of events in the letter, the IndiGo president also backed his employee Juby Thomas who was seen in the video entering into a scuffle with Katiyal.
"He was indeed doing his work and ensuring the safety of passengers," the letter said.
It said that Thomas was asking Katiyal to move away from a catering lift to "prevent any accident".
However, when the passenger could not hear Thomas, the latter "started shouting in a much louder voice to overcome the deafening ambient noise around the aircraft", which might have been construed as rude by Katiyal, it said.
According to IndiGo, the passenger abused the airline staff, and the employee turned around and asked Katiyal why was he abusing.
In the video, it is after this argument that things begin to spiral out of control.
Ghosh has included screenshots of the video to explain how the events unfolded last month.
The airline also defended its move to sack another ground staff Montu Kalra for shooting the video and said he "instigated the incident".
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