Hyderabad: An Italian DJ was allegedly assaulted by an Air India staff member at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport on Sunday. 

In a video posted by her on Facebook that went viral, Olly Esse said that her flight was delayed by nine hours. When she went to the airline staff to enquire, she was allegedly slapped by a member. 

Air India has denied all allegations.

The DJ said that when she went up to the counter to get help and to ask about the delay of her flight, the woman behind the counter was rude to her and said that it wasn’t her job. Esse then proceeded to take out her phone and threatened to file a complaint, upon which the airline member slapped her and Esse’s cellphone fell from her hand.

In a Facebook post, Esse wrote, “I went and asked a lady at the counter of air India how what should I do and she didn't reply, I attracted her attention once again asking her to collaborate and she replied rudely that this is not her job and I should go to do bookings by myself - as I took out the cell phone and asked her to say that again because I'm going to file the complaint to Air India for that kind of treatment she slapped me so hard I fell back and my cell phone fell from my hand! I literally started to scream from pain!”

 

Esse claims that she went to the police to lodge a complaint, but in vain. “It hurts to know and understand that the police station was treating my request for help with a smile on face and saying they can't do anything because the inspector is not there. The sadistic smile on the face of the manager of Air India when she was looking at me and just all happy said that she won't do anything to help me just indicated me the level of your professional treatment. I was really doing my best here, trying to do everything in my power to make my own world and my part here in India,” alleged Esse.

 

An Air India spokesperson said, “The passengers were agitated that flight was delayed due to technical issues. The ground staff is outsourced to an external agency. When this DJ asked one person for help, she was asked to go to another counter. An Indian behind the DJ took offence and started saying we need to treat foreigners better, and a little scuffle started. When the DJ tried to film the incident, the staff at the desk said that she did not consent to be filmed, and got up. By mistake, her hand hit the DJ’s hand and the phone fell down”.

The police say that the CCTV footage of the incident shows a heated exchange but no assault.