Two traders were arrested at the airport on Thursday night for allegedly molesting an air hostess aboard a Deccan flight on their way back from pilgrimage.

Sheikh Jamil Hussain, 37, and Kuddus Ali Mallick, 33, both building material suppliers from Dankuni, were occupying aisle seats on the flight from Jaipur, which took off around 8.30pm.

The men, who were returning from Ajmer-e-Sharif, called an air hostess over to their seats “several times on flimsy grounds”, said an airline official. “Once, when the air hostess was walking down the aisle, one of the men intentionally stretched his leg out and tried to block her way,” alleged the official.

The air hostess initially did not react to the harassment. But shortly before the flight landed, “the two asked her if she was free at night”, according to police. “They also held her hand and asked her to accompany them.”

The enraged air hostess reported the matter to the pilot, who informed the ground security of the airline. The security officials alerted the airport police station around 11pm. When the flight landed a few minutes later, a team of officers was waiting in the domestic terminal.

The two were picked up near the conveyor belt and taken to the police station. They were arrested after the air hostess lodged a complaint of molestation against the duo, said North 24-Parganas police superintendent Supratim Sarkar.

Hussain and Mallick were produced in Barrackpore court on Friday and remanded in judicial custody for 14 days.

During interrogation, the two admitted that they had called the air hostess over “too many times” but said that they did not have any “wrong intentions”.