Sena MP must be punished, attack like 'road rage': AI staffer

The 62-year-old Air India staffer, who was beaten up by a Shiv Sena MP "25 times" with his slippers, today said his attacker must be punished so that no one takes it as their "birthright" to assault a person.

R Sukumar, who is with the state-owned airline's ground handling subsidiary, also said Ravindra Gaikwad's assault on him was akin to a violent road rage incident.

When Gaikwad refused to disembark from Air India's Pune to Delhi AI 852 on landing at IGI airport here at 9.35am yesterday, Sukumar was the duty manager responsible for preparing the flight for its onward scheduled departure to Goa at 10.55am.

Gaikwad attacked Sukumar over being unable to travel business class despite having insisted on boarding the all- economy flight.

Sukumar said the police must act so that there is a deterrence.

"Police action should be taken to restrict these people from doing this kind of thing again. That is the most important thing. They should not keep on doing it. They should not take it as their birthright to assault a person," he told

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)