A German pilot who was sacked by Jet Airways after being branded a racist by Harbhajan Singh and two fellow passengers has slapped a $15-million defamation lawsuit against the three. Bernd Hoesslin, who was also accused of mocking disability, has named the airline, too, in the suit for firing him over what he calls baseless allegations, his lawyer said on Friday.

Hoesslin was the commander of a Chandigarh-Mumbai flight on April 3, and Harbhajan was on board with singer Pooja Singh Gujral and Jatinder Singh, who uses a personalised wheelchair because of polio. Hoesslin had a serious argument with the three over Jatinder’s wheelchair while the aircraft was being refuelled, according to reports.

Weeks later, Harbhajan fired off a series of tweets alleging that Hoesslin assaulted Pooja and verbally abused Jatinder.