Wheelchair cricket team player alleges harassment by CISF at Delhi airport

The incident came to light after Pradeep Raj, general secretary of Indian Wheelchair Cricket, who was also travelling with Antora, tweeted about it.

A player of the Indian wheelchair cricket team, Rohit Antora, on Sunday alleged that he had to take off his trousers and remove his prosthetics at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport for a security check. The Central Industrial Security Force that carries out the security checks, however, said that none of their personnel asked the passenger to take off his trousers and added that the agency had only followed the passenger safety mandate.

The CISF, that carries out security checks at airports, has denied the claims made by a member of the Indian wheelchair cricket team. (HT File)

The incident came to light after Pradeep Raj, general secretary of Indian Wheelchair Cricket, who was also travelling with Antora, tweeted about it.

Antora, who belongs to Chandigarh and was travelling to Srinagar for a cricket camp from Terminal 2, said, “We reached the terminal around 9pm. As soon as we headed for security check, the CISF personnel asked me to get my prosthetics checked. Since my prosthetic leg is attached above my right knee, they asked me to take off my trousers. It was embarrassing,” he said.

Raj said since they were getting late they could not file a formal complaint.

“We will file a complaint with the Ministry of Civil Aviation once we are back in Delhi,” he said.

Assistant inspector general (CISF) Hemender Singh said that the security check is a mandate of the bureau of civil aviation. “Our men were following protocol. The passenger was taken to a separate room. Our men asked him to lift his trousers so that the prosthetics could be checked. Later he headed for boarding and filed no complaint,” Singh said.