New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked Air Sahara to explain why it barred Rajiv Rajan, a cerebral palsy patient, from boarding a flight to Delhi in Chennai on Monday.
Rajan was made to wait for three hours at the Chennai airport, trying to reason with officials. He had been invited by the Indian government to attend a disability meet in Delhi. Rajan says he will sue Air Sahara, which has refused to comment on the incident.
“They (airline officials) said I couldn't get onto the plane without an escort and they asked me for a fit-to-fly certificate. That's only for the medically ill, not for disabled people like me. I was afraid that they were going to push my wheelchair, so I left and they called the police,†Rajan told CNN-IBN.
Media reports say the airline, a subsidiary of Jet Airways, demanded to see the boarding passes of Rajan's previous air-trips. "They even called in the police to send me out of the airport. A couple of policemen recognised me as a frequent flyer and tried to intervene on my behalf but the airline staff refused to listen," Rajan was quoted by The Times of India as saying.
Rajan, a sub-committee member of the National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities, had been invited to a trust meeting in Delhi.
“The conduct of the employees of Air Sahara and Spice Jet amounts to violation of Rajan's constitutional rights to a life of dignity, equal opportunities, non-discrimination and to his freedom of movement. We are going to file a complaint in the consumer court and ensure that Rajan gets justice," Javed Abidi, convener of the Disability Rights Group, told The Times of India.
Last year, security officials barred an autistic child from boarding a plane because they feared he could be a threat to other passengers. Central Industrial Security Force officials did not want Ahed, son of Tamil film actor Prithvi Raj, on the flight because they didn’t want to take a risk.
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