Kerala air hostess alleges sexual abuse by Air India Express pilot

Thiruvananthapuram: An Air India Express pilot is in trouble after a couple of cabin crew members raised sexual abuse allegations against him.

The city police has registered a sexual harassment case against the pilot on the basis of a complaint filed by a cabin crew member. Another former cabin crew member had given a statement to the police that she had also faced similar nasty experiences with the same pilot.

According to the Valiyathura police here, a case was registered against the pilot, identified as Manoj Kumar, last month based on the complaint. The First Infor-mation Report (FIR) was filed on October 4 and charges invoked were sexual har-assment, wrongful confinement, criminal intimidation and use of obscene gestures and languages under Sections 354A, 342, 506 and 294(b) of Indian Penal Code.

“The case is being investigated and we already collected statements of some employees and former employees. While some were not privy to the incident, a former cabin crew gave a statement that she also faced similar experience with the accused,” said a police official.

The victim said that she was harassed by the pilot on several occasions since 2007 for not yielding to his sexual advances. On September 18, 2017 he abused and showed sexual gestures  on board an aircraft. She also alleged that the pilot threatened to get her job terminated.