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An FIR has been lodged against three senior officials of IndiGo Airlines after a 35-year-old trainee pilot from Bengaluru accused them of subjecting him to caste-based humiliation and harassment.
An FIR has been lodged against three senior officials of IndiGo Airlines after a 35-year-old trainee pilot from Bengaluru accused them of subjecting him to caste-based humiliation and harassment.
The complaint, initially registered as a zero FIR in Bengaluru, was later transferred to the DLF-1 police station in Gurgaon for further investigation. The FIR invokes stringent provisions under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Despite repeated inquiries, IndiGo Airlines has not issued any official comment on the matter.
The incident allegedly occurred on April 28 during a meeting at IndiGo's corporate headquarters in Emaar Capital Tower 2, Gurgaon. The complainant named three senior personnel — Tapas Dey, Manish Sahani, and Captain Rahul Patil — as accused of the abuse.
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Trainee IndiGo pilot accuses colleagues of casteist abuse
The trainee pilot recounted that the harassment began the moment he stepped into the office, when Tapas Dey allegedly ordered him to leave his phone and bag outside “in a demeaning manner.” “His instruction set the tone for the abuse that followed,” the complaint stated.
According to the pilot, the officials hurled casteist insults at him during the 30-minute meeting that started at 3:30 PM. He cited derogatory remarks such as “you are not fit to fly an aircraft, go back and stitch slippers” and “you don't even have the worth to be a watchman here.”
He further alleged that the abuse was not limited to verbal attacks but coerced him into resignation. “The statements they made were not only humiliating but clearly aimed at degrading my identity and status as a Scheduled Caste person,” he asserted.
The complaint also details a disturbing pattern of "professional victimisation"—including unexplained salary deductions, compulsory retraining sessions, the cancellation of travel entitlements, and baseless warning letters. Despite multiple appeals to the company’s senior leadership and ethics committee, the pilot claims that no remedial action was taken, leaving him with no option but to seek legal recourse through the SC/ST cell.
“We have begun collecting evidence and will soon record the statements of all parties involved,” confirmed Assistant Sub-Inspector Dalwinder Singh.
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