“Will Look Into It”: Aviation Minister on allegations of Bhagwant Mann deplaned for being ‘drunk’

New Delhi: A major controversy erupted after some reports suggested on Monday that Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was deplaned from a Lufthansa flight in Germany for being heavily drunk.

Today, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that he will look at the allegations that Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was deplaned from a Delhi-bound flight at the Frankfurt airport for being ‘drunk’.

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal had recently alleged that Mann was deplaned at the Frankfurt airport as he was in an inebriated state. Badal had demanded the Centre to initiate an inquiry in the matter.

Several other politicians including Punjab Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa also sought a probe and had even written a letter to Scindia.

“This was an incident on international soil. We will have to make sure that we verify the facts. It is up to Lufthansa airline to provide the data. Based on the request that has been sent to me, I will certainly look into it”, Scindia told the media during an event on Tuesday.

Allegations have it that the incident took place when the flight in question was delayed by 3 hours due to a late inbound flight followed by an aircraft change, though it was further delayed as a particular passenger, who was inebriated, was taken out after a heated exchange with the crew and fellow travellers.

Meanwhile, an official statement issued by the airlines says that the flight was delayed owing to a late inbound flight and an aircraft change.

“For data protection reasons we do not provide any information regarding individual passengers”, it further added.