Bengaluru woman ordered to strip at Frankfurt airport

www.mangaloretoday.com

Bengaluru, April 02, 2017: A woman from Bengaluru travelling to Iceland was asked to take off her clothes for a body search at the Frankfurt airport.

Shruthi Basappa, who studied engineering at BMS College in Bengaluru, narrated her ordeal on Facebook on March 30.

She said the airport staff had allowed her Icelandic husband to pass through with just a pat-down, while they harassed her.

“I was taken into a room, and was asked to lift my dress/take it off so that I could be checked to make sure I wasn’t’’carrying anything under my clothes’. This whole ordeal happened in front of my 4 year old,” her post read.

Security staff shouted at Shruthi, who holds an Indian passport and an Icelandic residence permit, when she had sought a regular pat-down on the grounds that she had recently undergone abdominal surgery.

The supervisor at the airport stepped in and repeated the order before taking a look at Shruthi’s husband and changing her mind, the post says.

“I’d like to think I stood my ground, but I know in my heart that it was a peek at my ’appropriately light husband’ that was the proof needed. To say I am angry and upset is putting it lightly,” she said, replying to a comment on her post.

A member of the Airport Frankfurt Team responded to her post, asking her to email the airport. “I regret that the security check has been unpleasant for you,” the reply read.

Shruthi emailed the airport authorities, but was upset they were taking too long to respond.

Sushma seeks report
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has sought a report from Raveesh Kumar, India’s Consul-General in Frankfurt. When social media users brought the story to her notice on Twitter, she responded by tweeting to the official: ‘Raveesh - Plz send me a report on this. @CGIFrankfurt.’