FIR against Delhi airport CISF personnel after Australian woman reports theft

An FIR has been registered against unidentified Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel after an Australian woman alleged that her jewellery and foreign currencies worth Rs 50,000 were stolen from her handbag during an X-ray check. The theft allegedly happened when she was transferring from the international to domestic section at Delhi’s IGI Airport.

Akeshni Singh Gour, 40, flew from Sydney to Delhi on an Air India flight and took a connecting flight of the same airline to Hyderabad on August 11, 2022, when the alleged incident happened. She was travelling to India to attend her father-in-law’s funeral.

Also read: Delhi airport to get 1400 more CISF personnel to handle post-expansion rush

“The whole thing was an act that involved a number of officials who knew what they were doing and they took advantage of my vulnerability, of knowing a mother travelling alone with two very little children (aged 3 and 7) who were both exhausted from a 15-hour flight,” reads the FIR registered on January 4.

Delayed response

Speaking to PTI over phone from her Sydney home, Gour said she realised the theft after reaching Hyderabad. She suspects the involvement of security personnel because throughout the journey, the only time her backpack containing the valuables was out of her sight was when she went through the screening.

“I wrote to every authority, starting from Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to airport security, Delhi Police, CISF, etc., in the last six months, but it was only on December 30 that I received an e-mail from SHO IGI Airport to join the investigation,” Gour said, adding she travels to India once in a while, and this trip was her first in six years.

Responding to a PTI query, the office of Apoorv Pandey, Public Relations Officer of the CISF, said they are looking into the matter.

Also read: Security breach in Bengaluru airport before PM visit: Intruder caught at trolley gate

Gour said, “On October 11, 2022, I received an e-mail from Arun Singh, AIG/Airport Security, who asked me to pursue the matter with the local police.”

She also shared a copy of the letter with PTI. Singh’s letter further read, “Local police is the right authority for the redressal of your grievance.”

How it may have happened

Giving details of the incident, she said she took five trays during the X-ray screening — three for her backpacks, one for suitcase, and one for her laptop. Together with her children, she walked out on the other side after the screening process.

“All trays but the one with the backpack with my personal belongings came out together. I picked up all the stuff and later saw one tray with the backpack going to the other side where those bags with questionable items go,” she mentioned.

“I walked to the other side, and the officer asked me for my boarding pass, and I said the boarding pass is in that bag itself. He then asked me to take it out, which I did, as it was sitting right on top,” she added.

Also read: CISF officer who stopped Salman at airport rewarded for ‘exemplary’ duty

It didn’t arouse her suspicion when the officer looked at the X-ray screen and asked her to go. However, she found it quite surprising that he did not even check the bag.

“If they found any questionable item, why didn’t they check? Rather, they asked me to hurry up and go without any inspection,” she said.

“I am desperate and hoping to have faith in the legal system of India to assist me not for only my benefit but to also ensure that there aren’t any more victims who travel through India and are targeted by these low lives who are supposed to be there in the first place for our safety and security,” the FIR reads.

(With agency inputs)