Bengaluru airport: Woman alleges strip-search; authorities tight-lipped

A young woman musician on Tuesday took to Twitter to allege that she was strip-searched at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport.

She claimed she was asked to remove her shirt during security check and had to stand at the security checkpoint “wearing just a camisole,” drawing unwanted attention. She said it was “humiliating” and asked, tagging the airport in her tweet, why they needed a woman to strip.

“I was asked to remove my shirt at the Bengaluru Airport during security check. It was really humiliating to stand there at the security checkpoint wearing just a camisole and getting the kind of attention you’d never want as a woman. @BLRAirport Why you need a woman to strip?” read Krishani Gadhvi’s tweet, which has since been deleted.

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Airport authorities distanced themselves from the matter, saying they could not take any action, as it pertained to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). “We have nothing to say, as it has got to do with the CISF,” a communication team member of the airport told PTI.

Earlier, the airport’s official Twitter handle replied to the woman’s post regretting the “hassle” it caused her.

“We deeply regret the hassle caused and this should not have happened. We have highlighted this to our operations team and also escalated it to the security team managed by CISF (Central Industrial Security force) a Government sovereign,” it wrote in the reply, which has also been deleted now.

There has been no official comment from the CISF so far.

(With agency inputs)