Bangalore: As if the ‘psychological hurt’ was not enough, Indian paralympian cyclist Aditya Mehta was also left bleeding after being forced to remove his prosthetic limb as part of a security check at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) here.
Two months after a similar incident of humiliation, Aditya had to go through the ordeal again when he was forced to remove his prosthetic limb, October 11 and while hurriedly wearing it back to catch the flight he ended up hurting himself.
“They forced me to remove my limb. It took 45 minutes to wear it back. While I was wearing it inside the room, the officials asked me to come out quickly as the take-off time was nearing. In that tension I started to push my stump very hard, and when I removed the limb in my house, I found I was bleeding,” Mehta told this agency over the phone Thursday from Hyderabad.
Mehta also said that he had informed official that he was carrying an injury for the last 20 days and it would be difficult for him to remove the prosthetic limb and wear it again.
Earlier on two occasions, Mehta had been humiliated by the security people at Delhi and Bangalore airports. Mehta said he was asked by CISF official Thakur Das to get inside a room and remove his prosthetic limb.
“At the airport the same person (Thakur Das), with whom I had an issue at the airport earlier, was there and he asked me to get into a room and remove the limb,” he said.
Mehta pleaded with the official that if he removed his artificial limb it would take at least 45 minutes to wear it back and the flight was about to take-off in next 30 minutes.
“But the officer told me ‘No, if it is an injury, it is your problem. We have to take care of security and you should allow us to do our duty’,” Mehta added.
Mehta argued that he had been to three other airports but the officials there did not ask him to remove his limb. “I told them the security officials can check the ETD. In fact, I had been to three other airports, where they did not force me to remove my limb,” he informed.
Venting his ire on social media, Mehta said despite writing to DGCA asking for full-body scanners for disabled people to be set up, no action has been taken so far.
The DGCA office in Hyderabad meanwhile said that asking people with prosthetic limbs to remove them is standard operating procedure as part of security in any airport.
Press Trust of India