IndiGo has barred nine media persons for 15 days for unruly behaviour while they were on the same flight in which Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut was heading to Mumbai from Chandigarh.
On September 9, Ranaut was en route to Mumbai by Indigo flight no. 6E-264 from Chandigarh to Mumbai where media personnel allegedly violated the rules.
The media persons have been barred from travelling in the airline from October 15 to 30.
Earlier, India aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had asked IndiGo to take appropriate action against unruly behaviour of passengers.
A DGCA official had said: "There are multiple issues. The prominent ones include photography onboard in violation of Aircraft Rules 13, violation of Covid protocols and certain actions falling within the purview of unruly behaviour onboard."
As per the DGCA rules, an airline can put an "unruly passenger" on its "no-fly list" for a certain period of time after an internal enquiry.
A viral video of the incident showed that reporters and camerapersons of various TV channels were jostling and bunching up near the front rows to get a comment from Ranaut after the plane landed at the Mumbai airport.
The video purportedly showed that the actor was sitting in one of the front rows.
In the video, one crew member can be heard telling the passengers to sit down in their seats and not "harass" anyone as the seat belt sign had not been turned off.
According to the video, Ranaut disembarked from the plane without giving any comment to the mediapersons on board.
The Shiv Sena, which heads the alliance government in the state, and Ranaut had engaged in a war of words after she likened Mumbai to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and said she feared Mumbai Police more than alleged movie mafia.
(With inputs from agencies)
