US citizen allegedly smokes on Air India flight, misbehaves with passengers

A US citizen has been accused of creating a ruckus on an Air India flight after trying to smoke on Air India London-Mumbai flight, ANI reported.

A case has been filed at Sahar Police Station in Mumbai against one Ramakant for his causing inconvenience mid-flight on March 11.

The cops have informed that the case has been booked under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 336 (whoever does any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life or the personal safety of others) and Aircraft Act 1937, 22 (refuse to follow a lawful instruction given by the Pilot-in-Command), 23 (Assault and other acts endangering safety or jeopardizing good order and discipline) and 25 (for smoking).

The Police said that the accused is of Indian origin but a citizen of the United States of America and holds a US passport.

"Smoking is not allowed on the flight but as he went to the bathroom the alarm started to ring and when we all crew ran towards the bathroom saw he had a cigarette in his hand. We immediately threw the cigarette from his hand. Then Ramakant started shouting at all our crew members. Somehow we took him to his seat. But after some time he tried to open the door of the aircraft. All the passengers got scared because of his behavior and he started acting gimmick on the flight. He was not ready to listen to us and was shouting. Then we tied his hands and legs and made him sit on the seat," the news agency quoted the crew member of Air India as telling the Sahar Police.

The accused passenger didn't even stop and started banging his head. "One person among the passenger was a doctor. He came and checked him. Then Ramakant said that he has some medicine in his bag we didn't find any but an e-cigarette was recovered while checking the bag," the police claimed.

The person has been handed over to the cops once the flight landed in its destination. "We have sent the sample of the accused for medical test to confirm whether he was in an inebriated state or mentally disturbed," the police added.

In the recent times, many instances of passengers misbehaviour have come to light and notably among them was November 26 incident where one Shankar Mishra was accused of peeing on an elderly woman in an an inebriated state.