Coming a month after the Kangana Ranaut incident at Chandigarh, the slapping of a CISF ASI by an angry SpiceJet staffer at Jaipur airport raises questions over taking law in own hands in wake of ‘provocations’
A second reported incident of slapping at an airport connected to security screening in just over a month has once again brought into sharp focus the debate over whether a person aggrieved of provocation, however grave, can usurp the right to take the law into his or her own hands in a fit of rage and justify it as a natural reaction.
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After the actress-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut incident at the Chandigarh International Airport in first week of June, in which a female Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) staffer on security screening duty slapped her, angered over the actress’ past disparaging remarks against women participants in the farmers’ agitation, comes another episode of a SpiceJet female security staff member slapping a CISF officer during a heated argument over security screening at the Jaipur airport.
The woman SpiceJet staffer, identified as Anuradha Rani, was later arrested on charges of assault and sent to judicial custody by a court, on a complaint lodged by the slapped CISF Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Giriraj Prasad. The woman, who has received full backing from her employers, also subsequently filed a counter police complaint against the CISF ASI alleging “serious sexual harassment”.
A CCTV video clip of the incident shows the CISF officer speaking to the woman in the presence of at least six others, including other SpiceJet staffers and a female CISF staffer. Suddenly, she takes hasty steps towards the ASI and delivers a stinging slap on his face.
According to the ASI’s complaint, an argument took place when the woman was entering the airport along with other SpiceJet staff through the gate meant for vehicles around 4.40 a.m. on July 11. She was stopped for not having valid permission to use that gate, as claimed by the ASI.
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While SpiceJet claims she had a valid Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS)-issued airport entry pass, she was asked by the ASI to wait for screening and frisking at the nearby entrance for airline crew till a female CISF personnel arrives.
Whatever may have transpired during arguments between the female SpiceJet staffer and the CISF male ASI is a matter of investigation by the CISF internally, and the airport police, but the available CCTV footage clearly shows the presence of a female CISF staffer along with at least five other witnesses, including SpiceJet staffers, when the apparently livid SpiceJet staffer aggressively advances towards the CISF ASI and slaps him on the face.
In a written statement SpiceJet claimed: “While escorting a catering vehicle at the steel gate, our female security staff member, who had a valid airport entry pass issued by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), India’s civil aviation security regulator, was subjected to inappropriate and unacceptable language by the CISF personnel, including asking her to come and meet him after his duty hours at his home.”
“We stand firmly by our employee and are committed to providing her with full support,” the SpiceJet spokesperson said.
Since both incidents – at Chandigarh and Jaipur airports – involve CISF personnel, a quick and serious intervention by the top hierarchy of the CISF, which is tasked among other things with the security at the airports across the country, to look at their standard operating procedures (SOPs) and their proper implementation has attained urgency.
However, it has been more than a month since the Kangana Ranaut incident, and CISF has not been transparent enough to share the outcome of its internal investigation into the episode. Will the Jaipur incident also meet the same fate!
