Swedish national arrested for molesting IndiGo staff in Bangkok-Mumbai flight
The 63-year-old passenger was allegedly drunk at the time of the incident.
The Mumbai Police arrested a Swedish national on Thursday after he allegedly molested an airline staff onboard a Bangkok-Mumbai flight, reported The Indian Express.
The accused, identified as Klas Erik Harald Jonas Westberg, was travelling in IndiGo flight 6E-1052 and started misbehaving with the cabin crew when the meals were being served. The 63-year-old passenger was allegedly drunk at the time of the incident, reported the newspaper.
“The problem began when I informed Westberg, who was drunk, that there was no seafood onboard,” the cabin crew member told The Times of India. “I served him chicken meals and asked for his ATM [Automated Teller Machine] card to make a payment through the POS [Point of sale] machine. On the pretext of swiping the card, the passenger held my hand. I pulled it back and asked him to enter the card PIN.”
She alleged that Westberg then got up and molested her and returned to his seat when she protested.
After the flight landed at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Westberg was handed over to the police. A case was registered on the complaint of the cabin crew staffer after which the accused was placed under arrest.
The accused kept hurling expletives throughout his journey following which the cabin crew declared him an unruly passenger, the first information report said, reported The Times of India. Westberg also assaulted another passenger who confronted him, the FIR said.
However, Westberg’s lawyer has said that the Swedish national suffers from health issues and his body shivers, reported the newspaper. “He cannot hold anything without help,” his lawyer Prabhakar Tripathi said. “He tried to hold the POS payment card machine when he touched the cabin crew. He did not touch her intentionally.”
Thursday’s incident comes after an Indian passenger on board an American Airlines flight from New York to Delhi urinated on his co-passenger while he was drunk. The man, identified as 21-year-old Arya Vohra, a student in the United States and was later banned from the airline.
In November, another Indian man, Shankar Mishra, had urinated on his co-passenger during an Air India flight on November 26. In January, Mishra was banned from the airline for four months.