Etihad Airways asked to pay Tk2 cr to two Bangladeshis for harassment

The High Court (HC) on Wednesday asked the  Etihad Airways to pay Tk1 crore compensation each to a Bangladeshi woman and her daughter in a 2011 case filed over harassing them at Abu Dhabi airport.

The UAE flag carrier will have to pay the compensation to Tanzeen Bristy and her mother Nahid Sultana Juthi, a Supreme Court lawyer and also the wife of Jubo League Chairman Sheikh Fazle Shams Parash.

Given the ongoing pandemic, Etihad was asked to pay the compensation in 20 equal monthly instalments after receiving the copy of  the verdict.

This was an “arbitrary, unjust, and uncourteous” act of Etihad Airways which cannot be measured by fine only, the HC bench of Justice Md Ashraful Kamal and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil made the observation in the full 192-page text of the verdict.

On June 28, 2011, the mother and daughter were going to Canada on an Etihad flight. But they were harassed by the airline staff at Abu Dhabi airport and were forced back to Dhaka at their own cost.

On July 5, 2011, Bristy served a legal notice on Etihad, seeking compensation and action against the airline for their harassment.

On July 14 that year, the HC had asked the inquiry committee of the foreign ministry to submit the probe report in one month after collecting the video footage from Etihad.

On October 8 last year, the HC bench had announced its verdict following the writ petition filed by Bristy almost 10 years ago.