Delhi Police on Monday said that an FIR has been filed against Virender Sejwal, an Air India Express off-duty pilot, after a complaint was submitted by flyer Ankit Dewan, who accused the pilot of assaulting him at T1 terminal of the airport. Officers said a complaint was received via email from Dewan.
Initially, Ankit Dewan had shared a detailed account of how the incident unfolded on his X account, along with pictures of his injury and the pilot. Dewan claimed that he was physically assaulted by Air India Express pilot Captain Virender Sejwal at Terminal 1 of Delhi Airport.
Earlier, Delhi Police had said that there was no formal complaint from either the passenger or the airline regarding the alleged assault at Terminal 1. The police clarified that they became aware of the incident only after Ankit Dewan’s post surfaced on X, adding that appropriate legal action would be initiated once a written complaint was submitted by the victim.
What happened at Terminal 1?
Dewan, who was accompanied by his wife and two children, said his family was "guided to use the security check that the staff uses because we had a 4-month-old baby in a stroller."
However, he said, the airport staff was cutting the queue. "On calling them out, Capt Virender, who himself was doing the same thing, asked me if I was anpadh (uneducated), and couldn't read the signs that said this entry was for staff."
A verbal scuffle broke out between Dewan and the pilot, which then escalated into violence. "Not able to exercise restraint, the AIX pilot proceeded to physically assault me, leaving me bloody," Dewan wrote.
Ankit Dewan said that the incident ruined his holiday and traumatised and scared his seven-year-old daughter, “who saw her father get assaulted brutally".
What Sejwal's lawyer said
On Sunday, the lawyer representing the off-duty Air India Express pilot said that the scuffle was settled in the presence of CISF officials and that both individuals voluntarily signed a statement indicating they did not intend to take any legal action.
In a statement, Sejwal's lawyer claimed that the recent reports and social media posts have “misrepresented a personal incident” and that the “distorted social media portrayal is based on a one-sided, incomplete misrepresentation of facts.”
