A controversy arose when Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha claimed that a senior Supreme Court advocate was assaulted and threatened by a fellow passenger on an IndiGo flight landing in Jabalpur. Tankha criticized the Jabalpur police for allegedly not taking action against the accused and keeping the victim and a child at the police station for nearly four hours. The incident, according to Tankha, occurred while passengers were disembarking from the aircraft.
Tankha, in social media posts, detailed that the senior advocate, who had a three-year-old child with him, was reportedly manhandled by another passenger. Despite the incident happening in public view, Tankha alleged that the alleged attacker was not detained at the airport. Tankha questioned the airport police’s response and tagged the Director General of Police, Madhya Pradesh, in his posts. He further accused the police of not acting against the accused and criticized the treatment of the advocate and the child at the police station.
The Congress MP also tagged IndiGo and the Madhya Pradesh Police, denouncing the treatment of the advocate as “shameful” and criticizing the government’s stance towards visitors and passengers. Tankha raised concerns about how the alleged assailant was allowed to leave the aircraft and the airport despite the assault on a passenger with a young child. The handling of the incident by airport security and local police has been called into question due to Tankha’s allegations.
