Chennai:
A Sikh man has claimed that the staff of Chennai Metro has apologised to him after their security guards demanded that he remove his turban at the at the city's Vadapalani station.
Metro officials, however, have denied charge.
In a Facebook post that was widely shared, 29-year-old engineer Tandeep Singh wrote he was stopped by the security guards at the metro on the night of August 31.
"After doing all the scans, the security person points at my turban and asks me to remove my cap. I was shocked," he wrote.
He told the guards that removing the turban was against his customs and he could not be asked to do it, but they replied that those were their instructions, he told NDTV.
He said he told the guard about the exemption given to Sikhs even from wearing helmets. "He wouldn't listen and I called his supervisor, who later apologised and let me travel without removing (turban)," Mr Singh said.
In his Facebook post, he wrote he had travelled widely in the US, but had never faced such a request. "I thought Chennai has actually changed and finally we are moving on as a city and be more accepting of different cultures and races," he wrote.
This evening, he posted that the Metro officials had called him up and apologised.
However, Chennai Metro officials deny this, a senior official who did not want to be named said: "We immediately checked our CCTV recording, Mr Tandeep is seen being checked normally and he moves on".
"I don't know why they should deny. Their Operations Manager even called me and apologised," Mr Singh later said.