Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said on Monday that he had not received any complaint regarding the alleged misbehaviour by a state minister with a woman passenger on board a flight.
He was reacting to allegations from Kerala Youth Congress President K P Anil Kumar and state Congress Women's Unit President Shanimol Usman urging him to initiate an inquiry into the matter.
"Since I have not received any complaint, I cannot inquire into it," Achuthanandan told reporters.
With the list of passengers now available with the media, it has now become clear the alleged minister is state Public Works Minister P J Joseph as he was the only minister on board the Kingfisher flight from Chennai to Kochi on August 3, the day the incident had taken place.
As the news spread, Youth Congress activists, on Monday, marched to the state secretariat demanding Joseph's resignation.
However, Joseph called the whole episode a conspiracy hatched against him by his political detractors.
"Not long ago there was an allegation of corruption in the Maithri Housing scheme and the very same group is behind this one too. I am prepared to face any inquiry," he said.
The woman passenger said she had not complained to anyone.
"I do not want to speak on this issue and am not interested to make an issue on this," said the woman.
Talking about the incident, her husband said it occurred when the lights were switched off during the aircraft's take off and a man sitting behind her misbehaved.
"She immediately called on the cabin crew and asked for a change of seat and got a rear seat. After the lights came on, all passengers wanted to see the person and he was seen sitting covering his face with a newspaper," said her husband.
He added the security officer of the Kochi airport called Saturday informing him there was an inquiry from the chief minister's office about the incident.
"I do not know if there is a complaint raised on this with the chief minister's office," said Political Secretary to the Chief Minister, K N Balagopal, admitting that he came to know about the incident from media reports.
However, there are indications that Achuthanandan had asked a police officer to inquire into the incident.
The aircraft pilot, Shaji Madhavan, confirmed the incident but did not elaborate on the identity of the person.
"Since my job is to fly the aircraft, anyone who has complaints has to raise it with the duty manager on that day," he said.
"The passenger list has the name of the minister. The chief minister should come out in the open about this," Anil Kumar told reporters at Kochi.
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