Paracyclist Aditya Mehta was asked to remove his prosthetic limb for security check at Bengaluru airport
Paralympian Aditya Mehta says he was left bleeding after he had to remove his prosthetic limb as part of a security check at the Bengaluru airport early on Tuesday morning, barely two months after he went through a similar ordeal at the same airport.
The paracyclist said an officer of the Central Industrial Security Force or CISF forced him to remove his limb and while wearing it again in a hurry, since his flight would take off soon, he hurt himself.
"When I removed the limb at my home, I found I was bleeding," he said.
Aditya Mehta has written to the Prime Minister's Office and the head of the CISF complaining against the officer Thakur Das, with whom, he said, he had had a run-in earlier at the Bengaluru airport.
"The same CISF commandant humiliated me twice. I have been psychologically scarred by this man," the cyclist, a double silver medalist at the Asian para-cycling championship three years ago, said, adding that he was contemplating suing the CISF, which handles security at big airports.
Mr Mehta said he pleaded with the officer to allow him to pass through without taking off the limb since it would take him a lot of time to strap it on again, but was told that it was a matter of security and that "it is your problem".
"I have been told that the Indian government doesn't have money for body scanners. I told them that I will raise money if the government doesn't have money," said a furious Mr Mehta, who has been advised by doctors not to use the prosthesis while walking till his injury heals.
In a Facebook post Mr Mehta said he has not faced the same problem at many other airports.
News agency PTI has quoted the office of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in Hyderabad as saying that asking people with prosthetic limbs to remove them is standard operating procedure in airport security.
Dipa Malik, who won a shotput silver in this year's paralympics said, "Security is in its place everybody has to go through it... I don't know if he had his medical certificates. That helps with the security."
She also said that "there was no need to take off the prosthetic leg altogether," calling for "senstisizing security people."