Man gropes female passenger on Mumbai-Guwahati IndiGo flight, 5th such case in three months
In yet another incident of in-flight sexual harassment, a male passenger allegedly groped a female co-passenger during a late-night flight from Mumbai to Guwahati.
The incident took place on IndiGo flight 6E-5319, which departed Mumbai just after 9 p.m. and arrived at its destination 15 minutes past midnight. The female passenger, who had an aisle seat, had lowered the armrests and had fallen asleep after the cabin lights were dimmed.
To her surprise, she woke up to find the armrest up and the male co-passenger leaning close to her.
«I found it weird because I distinctly remembered putting the hand down. Half-asleep, I didn't think too much about it, put the armrest down again and went back to sleep,» she said. However, moments later, she woke up to find the male passenger's hands on her, with his eyes closed.
«I didn't want to jump to conclusions...so, I waited, kept my eyes half-closed, and pretended to be asleep,» she told the Times of India.
Unfortunately, the ordeal continued as the co-passenger once again began to grope her and touch himself inappropriately. «I wanted to scream, but I couldn't. I froze,» she said.
After a while, she gathered the courage to pull his hand away, scream, turn on the seat lights, and call the cabin crew. «He started apologising for what he did while I was shouting, crying, and narrating the incident,» she said.
The airline, IndiGo, responded promptly by handing over the accused passenger to the Guwahati police upon arrival. An FIR has been filed based on the woman's complaint, and IndiGo has pledged to assist in the police investigation.
This incident marks the fifth such case of sexual harassment involving Indian passengers on flights in the past three months.
