Forced to remove his prosthetic leg during security checks at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) on Friday, Aditya Mehta, a silver medallist at the Asian Para-Cycling Championship 2013, has accused the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) of ‘humiliating’ him.
Taking to social media to narrate his experience, he said there could not have been “worse treatment for an amputee”.
‘Feeling terrible’
“It was really humiliating for me to receive such an immoral treatment. I was asked to take off my prosthetic limb and was almost stripped. Do you call this 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,” he said in his post.
Pointing to the reactions this post got from several other differently-abled persons, he told The Hindu it was not about him alone.
“If a person who has lost a limb recently is put through the same experience, s/he will not want to come out of their homes again,” he said, adding that he would take the fight to wherever it takes him, including the court of law.
However, the spokesperson of KIA, while maintaining that the issue was to be clarified by the CISF and not the airport authorities, said that continuous efforts are being made to make KIA comfortable for passengers with reduced mobility.
“We have also started training our staff in sign language. For us, as an airport, passenger convenience is top priority,” the spokesperson added.
