Bengaluru: Wheelchair-bound professor accuses Air India of denying boarding

A professor with the Indian Statistical Institute has accused Air India of refusing to let him board a flight from Bengaluru to Kolkata over his battery-operated wheelchair. Kaushik Kumar Majumdar on Monday said that the pilot of the flight had asked him to disconnect the batteries of his wheelchair.

“I was asked to remove the batteries of the wheelchair and I tried to explain to them that the wheelchair was designed to be taken by air without removing the batteries. They are dry-lead acid sealed cells. While others were allowed to board the flight, I was denied. I felt humiliated. They made me wait for an hour and then refused to allow me to board the flight.