Deka is a software engineer at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Kolkata, who was flying to Pune with 17 of his colleagues. They were shifting their base to Pune until May 27 due to the ongoing elections in West Bengal. When the plane stopped in Mumbai for half an hour, Deka moved out of his window seat to go speak with his friends in the plane. Kanhaiya Kumar then boarded the flight, and took the aisle seat in the same row.

Startled at his reaction, Deka offered a prompt apology, but in his words, “Kanhaiya would have none if it.”