New Delhi : Civil Aviation Ministry on Friday said it has given a clean chit to Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju in the Air India flight controversy and the Prime Minister’s Office has been apprised about it.
The Ministry has informed the PMO that Rijiju was not at “fault” for the delay in Air India’s Leh-Delhi flight on June 24, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma told PTI.
The PMO had yesterday sought a report from the Civil Aviation Ministry on allegations that Union Minister Kiren Rijiju had caused inconvenience to passengers of Air India owing to his VIP status.
Air India flight from Leh to Delhi was delayed by about an hour and three members of a family were offloaded from the plane to accommodate Rijiju, his aide and J&K Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh.
After the controversy erupted, Rijiju apologised yesterday. Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju also had apologised for inconvenience caused to the passengers.
Meanwhile, an Home Ministry official claimed that the video clip shown by television channels about Union Minister Kiren Rijiju being confronted by passengers of an Air India flight had ‘misinterpreted’ the facts as people were actually complaining to the Minister about advancement of the plane’s departure time.
“The video clip shown had been misinterpreted. Actually, the person in the video was telling the Minister that the preponing of flights was wrong and Air India has the habit of changing flight schedule in Leh sector. Many passengers also got information of re-schedule at a very late hour,” the official, who is privy to the incident, said on Friday.
