Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra has sent a legal notice to IndiGo airline for imposing a six-month ban on him after alleged heckling of journalist Arnab Goswami. Kamra, who sought revocation of the ban, has also demanded an unconditional apology. Kamra's lawyer, who sent the legal notice to IndiGo, asked the airline to "pay compensation towards my client in sum of Rs 25 lakhs on account of the mental pain and agony suffered by my client as well as losses incurred on account of cancellation of his scheduled shows and programmes in India as well as abroad on account of adoption of a totally illegal, arbitrary and high-handed procedure which is against the extant DGCA CAR (regulations)".
Why has Kunal Kamra sued IndiGo for Rs 25 lakh
Kunal Kamra was banned by IndiGo airline on Tuesday after he allegedly harassed Arnab Goswami on a Mumbai-Lucknow flight. Kamra posted a video of the incident on Twitter. SpiceJet, GoAir and Air India also imposed a similar ban on Kamra without specifying any period.
In his post on Twitter, Kunal Kamra had said: "Today I met Arnab Goswami in a flight to Lucknow, and politely asked him to have a conversation. At first, he pretended to be on a phone call. I waited for his so-called phone call to get over. Seatbelt signs were off at this time. I gave him a monologue about what I felt about his 'Journalism'. He refused to answer any questions, he called me 'mentally unstable'."
As per the 2017 rules of aviation regulator DGCA, if a passenger engages in any unruly behaviour, the pilot-in-command has to file a complaint and only then an internal committee of the airline can probe the matter and take punitive action based on findings of the investigation.
According to Kamra, the pilot-in-command has not made any complaint against him and therefore, as per the regulations, no action can be initiated against him. The 2017 DGCA rules state that a passenger who verbally assaults anyone is deemed as "level 1" unruly passenger and he or she can be banned up to maximum of three months by the airline's internal committee.
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