Paralympic medallist made to remove prosthetic limb twice in 4 days, at Indian airports

Even as word of him being ill-treated at the Bengaluru airport was spreading, Aditya Mehta, who won two silver medals at the 2013 Asian Paralympics, was asked to remove his prosthetic leg and clothes again when he was at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport to take a flight to Hyderabad on Tuesday.

Taking to Facebook, Aditya wrote "This is ridiculous! Another bad day! But this time I didn't give them a chance to put me down. Despite all the campaigning since four days, I was again asked to remove my prosthetic leg during security check at the Delhi Airport. A rude Sub-Inspector didn't have the courtesy to talk politely. He was adamant that he is not going to let me go until I take off my prosthetic limb for security check."

He went on to add "However, Assistant Commandant Rajeev, who was present at the site was kind enough to tell that they were just following the guidelines given by Bureau of Civil Aviation. He also mentioned that BCAS doesn't have enough funds to have body scanner which could be a sensitised way of checking. How pathetic is that!"

The Times of India reported:

Four days earlier, Mehta, a para-cyclist who is an above-the-knee-amputee, was allowed to board a flight only after putting his belongings, including his prosthesis, through a scanner at Bengaluru. He had gone there to promote the Aditya Mehta Foundation that works with differently abled sportspersons.

At the time, Aditya wrote: 

There cannot be a worst treatment than this for an amputee. On one hand we are trying out best to make lives better for the amputees at Central Armed Forces and on other side there are these uncivil officers who try to put us down. 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 off. 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.

Speaking to TOI, an official from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said “The rules do not exempt the screening of prosthesis so we have no choice but to check them...While there is ongoing discussion on whether a prosthetic limb should be checked with or without removing it, the BCAS is yet to take a final decision on it.''