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Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra has been banned by four airlines including Air India. This, definitely is public knowledge. However, what happened days ago at the Jaipur airport brought about a twist in the Kamra saga, and is little known.
A Boston-based man, named Kunal Kamra, was reportedly stuck for some time at the Jaipur airport after Air India confused him with the controversial comedian. The airline, later, allowed him to board the flight. Air India also explained why did the confusion occur.
"Comedian Kunal Kamra is banned from boarding Air India. It's mentioned in our system that's why his name was automatically rejected. But after verification of all the credentials of the pax, we allowed him to board the flight," an Air Indian spokesperson said. Comedian Kunal Kamra later took to Twitter and called the incident "collateral damage."
Kunal Kamra was banned by four airlines 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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