Mudasir Ahmad Khan, the SpiceJet employee who has been bedridden due to alleged assault by an army officer at Srinagar airport last month, said he was targeted for doing his work honestly.
Four employees of the airline were assaulted by Lieutenant Colonel R K Singh on July 26 after Khan had asked the army officer to pay charges for carrying extra cabin baggage according to the norms set by SpiceJet.
"I saw this man was carrying two cabin bags and asked him to stand aside so that they could be weighed. Against an allowance of 7 kilogram per piece of cabin baggage, this man was carrying two which weighed 16 kilograms," Khan told PTI from his home in Srinagar on Monday.
Khan has been bedridden since the day of the incident. He has a spinal fracture.
On asking for payment against extra baggage, the army officer became irate and misbehaved with him and other colleagues before turning violent, alleged Khan.
"He hit me with the bag, he punched me and slapped me till blood started oozing from my mouth and nose. Then I fell unconscious. Later I saw in the videos that he was not allowing anyone to even pick me up. He even assaulted four employees," the injured man said.
Khan said he stopped Lieutenant Colonel Singh as a part of his duty.
"Had I been wrong, then it was a different story. The airline ticket has clearly mentioned the baggage allowance for each passenger, however, this gentleman claimed that he does not know about it. I was only doing my job honestly," he added.
He demanded that the army officer be punished for his acts and said "What happened with me can happen to someone else as well. So he should definitely be punished for it."
Police have registered a case against Singh under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Section 115 (voluntarily causing hurt) for assaulting employees of SpiceJet.
Lt Col Singh has filed a counter-complaint with the police alleging assault, following which an FIR has also been registered against the airline staffers.
The officer, who is posted at the Army's High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS) at Gulmarg in Baramulla district, was to board a SpiceJet flight to Delhi when the incident took place.
Army has said that full cooperation will be extended to the authorities.
The airline has said it has initiated the process to place the passenger on the no-fly list in line with civil aviation regulations.
SpiceJet has also written to the civil aviation ministry, apprising them about the "murderous assault" on its staff and has requested appropriate action against the passenger.
The airline also said that it has secured the CCTV footage of the incident from the airport authorities and handed it over to the police.