Swedish national molests IndiGo air hostess, arrested in Mumbai

A 63-year-old Swedish national was arrested in Mumbai on Thursday for allegedly molesting a cabin crew member onboard an IndiGo flight from Bangkok.

The accused named Klas Erik Harald Jonas Westberg was handed over to Mumbai police by the airline staff after the flight landed at Mumbai Airport. He was produced in the Andheri court on Friday and granted bail the same day on payment of Rs 20,000 bail surety.

The Sahar police has filed a four-page chargesheet using the accounts of three witnesses (all cabin crew), according to a report in The Times of India.

The accused started misbehaving with the cabin crew when meals were being served on a four-hour-ling Indigo flight (6E-1052). The 63-year-old man was drunk and his run-in continued till the flight landed in Mumbai.

The report claims that a red warning card was read out by the captain. "The problem began when I informed Westberg (seated on 28-E), who was drunk, that there was noseafood onboard. I served him chicken meals and asked for his ATM card to make a payment through the POS machine. On the pretext of swiping the card, the passenger held my hand. I pulled it back and asked him to enter the card PIN. This time he crossed the limit ... getting up, he molested me in front of other passengers. When I shouted and screamed that he was misbehaving, he returned to his seat," the daily quoted the cabin crew member as saying in the complaint.

This is the 8th unruly airline passenger arrested in India in the past three months, according to officials.

The FIR further said, "The accused kept hurling 'f**k y**' during the entire journey. It is then that the victim read out the red warning card and ... declared (him) an 'unruly passenger'."

Westberg also assaulted 'another passenger seated on 28-D' who confronted him, the FIR said.

The Swedish national is accused of assaulting a co-passenger.

However, Westberg's lawyer Prabhakar Tripathi claimed that Westberg has health issues and his body shivers. "He cannot hold anything without help. He tried to hold the POS payment card machine when he touched the cabin crew. He did not touch her intentionally," he added.