A pregnant woman was allegedly ‘strip-searched’ at Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati on June 24 after a woman CISF staff wanted to verify her pregnancy.
The incident took place on June 24 when the woman, Doli Goswami, and her husband Shivam Sarmah were travelling to New Delhi from Guwahati.
“We were carrying the doctor’s prescription slip but left it in check-in bag after airline staff stopped us from carrying too many hand bags,” Sarmah was quoted as saying by Asian Age.
“When we approached the security check, the CISF staff did not hand over the boarding pass and asked my wife to show proof of her pregnancy. I told woman CISF staff Sujata about her pregnancy and even shown her June 12 Delhi to Guwahati flight boarding pass. We did not face any problem in Delhi. But in Guwahati, the CISF staff insisted about proof of pregnancy. Finally, she asked my wife to accompany her to a room and she was forced to undress. The CISF woman officer also pressed her abdomen to check her pregnancy,” said Sarmah.
“Dear CISF, please learn how to treat a pregnant woman. Yesterday, in Guwahati airport my wife was harassed by CISF staff named Sujata, she forced my wife to undress to verify pregnancy. Is it a crime being pregnant in this country?” Sarmah tweeted.
@CISFHQrs @narendramodi Dear CISF, please learn how to treat a pregnant woman. Yesterday, in Guwahati airport my wife was harrased by CISF staff named Sujata, she forced my wife to undress to verify pregnancy. Is it a crime being pregnant in this country? pic.twitter.com/DRYS4FVZVO
— Shivam Sarmah (@shivamsarmah) June 25, 2018
“We have taken cognizance of the tweet and enquired into the matter how it came to light that lady sub inspector carried out hand held metal detector. The woman passenger said that she is pregnant and please don’t use HHMG. That lady sub-inspector is a trainee and she got little confused as the couple could not produce any pregnancy documents and that created a misunderstanding. We will look into this matter,” CISF spokesperson Hemendra Singh was quoted as saying by the Asian Age newspaper.
