In a tweet, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis reiterates that he did not cause any delay to the Air India flight from Mumbai to New York.

Fadnavis tweeted, "If at all any report has been submitted, states that I refused to travel without my delegation then it is a blatant lie. Passengers sitting besides and behind me are witness that I was sitting quietly waiting for departure. Not even once I asked to offload me. Enough is enough. Once I'm back to India. I will initiate proceedings of criminal defamation."


An official email, had confirmed that Fadnavis did hold up the flight for 57 minutes. According to the email, the flight was delayed because Fadnavis' Principal Secretary Praveen Pardeshi had forgotten to carry his old passport which had the US visa. The email further states that Fadnavis refused to leave without his Principal Secretary.