Rijiju apologizes, says no passenger was offloaded

Stating that no passenger was offloaded from the Air India flight, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Thursday said he was sorry if any passenger was inconvenienced.
“No passenger was offloaded. It is not permissible. How can a passenger be offloaded from the aircraft? I will also not avail any opportunity at the cost of another passenger. Three passengers were stopped because they were late. So it is a case of debarring. If inconvenience was caused because the flight was pre-poned then we apologize for it,” he said.
“The Civil Aviation Minister has clarified it. I don’t think there is any issue. I was busy in the relief supervision, so some news channels had run some wrong stories, not exactly based on the facts,” he added.
Rijiju came under fire after he allegedly caused three people to be de-boarded from an Air India flight plying from Leh to Delhi.