A 26-year-old girl traveling with her boyfriend and his family has alleged molestation inside a SpiceJet flight.
The girl alleges that the airline crew members and security personnel even stopped her from filing a molestation report.
He said that the accused boy admitted to touching him inappropriately but despite this, the airline crew present in the plane and CISF personnel at Bagdogra airport stopped him from filing the complaint.
He said that there is no evidence of this incident. So he asked the boy to apologize and let him go.
According to the report, the girl, who was preparing for the Civil Services Examination, was traveling on SpiceJet flight SG 592 on January 31.
The girl got a seat three seats behind her boyfriend, his mother and his ailing father. Meanwhile the boyfriend’s mother asked him to come to the side seat as only one of the three seats was occupied.
A law student from Kolkata was sitting on that seat. He agreed to shift with her and give the seat to the woman. But he did not go to the vacant window seat and instead sat on the middle seat (the seat next to the woman).
As soon as the flight took off at around 9.30 in the morning, the girl put on earphones and started listening to music. Soon after take off, she felt the young man touching her left hand.
His hand was placed on the armrest of the seat. “He placed his right hand on the armrest next to me,” the girl said. Since I was busy listening to music, I didn’t notice until I felt my arm being pressed. When I turned towards the armrest, I saw that his fingers were touching me again and again. Initially I thought he was touching me by mistake. But then the crew started serving food and he immediately removed his hands.”
After the food was served, the girl felt a hand touching her thigh and trying to caress it.
She immediately screamed. Meanwhile an air-hostess came running. The girl said, “When I told him that the passenger had molested me, the young man said that he was sorry for it.
I got so angry that I slapped him. The air-hostess warned me that I shouldn’t have done this and asked me if I wanted to change my seat.
I told him that he (the criminal) should change the seat, not me. Then he was taken to another line but I insisted that action be taken against him.
Within moments, a male flight attendant arrived and instead of reassuring me, asked me why I was screaming. They are trained to deal with such situations, not me.”
After the flight landed, the airline staff and CISF personnel took the girl aside. Advised him to leave the young man as he is a student and filing a complaint would entail a long legal battle.
“I felt very disappointed when the young man was acquitted after apologizing,” the girl said. The airline spokesperson said, “On arrival at Bagdogra, both were assisted by SpiceJet security staff and escorted to CISF officials at the arrival area. The female passenger demanded action. The accused apologized and the female passenger left the airport without filing any complaint, hampering further investigation by SpiceJet.”