Mumbai, Jan. 18: A Jaipur businessman, who allegedly molested two airhostesses of GoAir yesterday morning, was let off because the victims did not lodge a formal complaint.

This was also the reason why the 14 youths accused of harassing two NRI women on New Year’s night had been granted bail after spending four nights in Arthur Road jail.

But 39-year-old Prakash Ved was luckier. He was allowed to go home to Jaipur after a minor hitch — he was asked to get off the Mumbai-Jaipur-Delhi flight and had to pay a fine of Rs 1,200 at Sahar police station.

According to the airline, trouble began while passengers were boarding flight G811 at 7am. Ved allegedly touched the breasts of a stewardess standing at the door. When she reacted with shock, he grabbed her hand and asked her to take him to his seat.

The airhostess managed to free herself from the businessman and passed him on to her colleague standing in the aisle. But Ved was not done yet. He allegedly patted the bottom of the second airhostess twice.

The businessman, claiming to be a former army officer, then got into an argument with the crew and demanded that his seat, 28F, be changed to 30C. When he used abusive language, the crew got in touch with the pilot.

Ved was offloaded with help from Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) officials on the ground.

“We were told that a passenger was creating disturbance on board. We offloaded the passenger and handed him over to Sahar police,” CISF commandant Sanjay Prakash said.

The police booked Ved under a non-cognisable offence.