A famous Indian actress received backlash after suggesting the sole survivor of the Air India disaster had lied. Suchitra Krishnamoorthi has apologised following her comments over Briton Vishwash Kumar Ramesh which sparked fury.
In a now-deleted post on X, she said: “So this #vishwaskumarramesh lied about bng [sic] a passenger on the plane & the only survivor? This is seriously weird. Didn’t his family in the UK corroborate his story?”
She continued: “What about his brother’s funeral that he was seen giving kandha to? Deserve not only some serious punishment but some mental asylum time if this is true uff.”
After outrage over her comments, Ms Krishnamoorthi posted a public apology.
“Took out my last tweet on the air india crash survivor,” she wrote on X. “Seems to be false news circulated for God knows what reason. My apologies.”
Mr Ramesh, from Leicester, was the only survivor on board the Air India flight which crashed into a medical college hostel in Ahmedabad, western India, less than a minute after taking off last week.
All other 241 people on board flight AI171 , including his brother Ajay, were killed and at least 30 people on the ground also died.
The 40-year-old said it was a “miracle” he survived the disaster after squeezing through a gap in the fuselage of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner which was heading to London Gatwick.
Footage emerged of Mr Ramesh walking away from the wreckage of Thursday’s crash relatively unscathed, with cuts to his hands and face.
Earlier this week, he helped carry his brother’s coffin during a funeral in Diu on India’s west coast after being discharged from hospital.
“It’s a miracle I survived,” he told The Sun. “I am OK physically, but I feel terrible that I could not save Ajay.”
The married father-of-one had been sitting in seat 11A, close to the emergency exits, while his brother was sitting on the other side of the aisle in 11J.
The aircraft’s black boxes have been recovered by investigators as officials look into the cause of the crash.
Investigators believe the doomed Air India flight may have had an emergency-power generator operating when it crashed, according to reports, raising questions over whether the aircraft’s engines were operating properly during take-off.