Aditya Mehta, silver medallist at the Asian Para-Cycling Championship, was forced to remove his prosthetic leg and clothes during a security check at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport on Friday, while on his way to Chandigarh.
The 28-year-old para-cyclist took to social media to narrate his ordeal. Aditya, in his Facebook post, said the immoral treatment was a humiliating experience as he was asked to take off his prosthetic limb and was almost stripped off.
“Do you call this a security check? Is this the kind of treatment you give to differently challenged people? These officers are meant to protect our lives not show us reasons to end our lives. A person like me who always tries to look at the brighter side of everything, is today put down terribly!” Aditya wrote in his Facebook post.
Aditya said that the security officers first behaved very rudely, but their behaviour changed abruptly when he started recording the act on his mobile phone.
He claimed that he requested the officials to do the security check with a body scanner as it was difficult for him to remove his clothes and prosthetic leg, but they denied his request and forced him to remove off his pants and prosthetic leg.
Upset with the incident, Aditya has now filed a complaint with Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) DG, in which he has requested that the security officials should behave properly with the passengers and also that physically disabled should not be pestered.
However, KIA Airport officials, on the other hand, dismissed Aditya’s claim, explaining that the CISF personnel was only doing their duty as per the standard security procedure.
Few days back, four national women hockey team players -- Deep Grace Ekka, Namita Toppo, Lilima Minz and Sunita Lakra, who were on their way back home from Rio Olympics, were allegedly forced to sit on the floor of the train as their tickets were not confirmed. The Indian Railways, however, have denied any mistreatment to the players.
