Bengaluru: A Bengaluru based homemaker alleged that she was verbally sexually harassed by an immigration officer at the Delhi airport on March 18 when she was flying to Hong Kong via Delhi.
The woman claimed that immigration officer harassed her by asking her several uncomfortable personal questions. The incident took place when the woman was at the immigration counter before she boarded the flight for Hong Kong where she had to meet her husband.
According to the complaint, the officer not only harassed her during the immigration process at the desk, but also by following her along at the escalator, between the domestic and international transfer.
The woman’s family has filed a complaint with the immigration authorities via e-mail but are yet to receive a response from the authorities.
According to the complaint, she was asked questions like, how many children do you have, do you drink, do you smoke, do you eat chicken, do you sleep with other men when your husband is at work. Not once or twice, but he asked her four times if she had undergone a surgery for birth control. He even asked her whether she would like to have her third child with him.
Here is the full text of the complaint sent to Commissioner, Bureau Of Immigration, Delhi PK Bhardwaj.
Dear Mr PK Bhardwaj ji
On the night of March the 18th at 21:30, at the Indra Gandhi International Airport my daughter in law landed from Bangalore and was transferred to international onto a Hong Kong flight scheduled at 02:00 the next morning.
I would like to complain, about an immigration officer who verbally sexually harassed my daughter in law not only during the immigration process at the desk, but also by following her along the travelator, between domestic and international transfer.
I would like to explicitly mention some of the questions/comments made by him
– How many children do you have?
– Where have you left them? You young girls have children and then don’t care and leave them with parents and do ‘majja ‘ with men.
– Do u drink, do u smoke, do u eat chicken,do u have fun with men when your husband is not there
– Have you done surgery for birth control.? ( this was asked 4 times)
– Do you sleep with other men when your husband is at work?
– Would you like to have the third child with me because my wife doesn’t want to have the 3rd child?
– Why are you going alone to Hongkong, to have fun with your husband, or anyone else? Will you have fun with me?
– Are u staying with anyone else in Hong Kong?
– Give me your personal number, which I could call you when your husband isn’t at home
She was in fear and so, removed her phone and spoke to a friend loudly about this immigration officer and only when he walked out of the glass door and was constantly looking up as she was taking the escalator up.
As she was travelling alone and was in a state of shock, to react to this situation or even register a complaint, so on her return on the March 23rd at 00:30, from Hong Kong, she along with her husband / my son visited the cabin of AFRRO Mr. Alok Kumar Verma, to file a complaint.
Mr. Verma, handed out the leaflet of the Department of immigration complaint handling contact information and requested to file it online and he could not officially take a complaint.
Whilst at the cabin, the officer alleged, walks into the cabin, for some of his other duties and my daughter in law identified him in front of the presiding AFRRO.
On a quick interrogation, he agreed that he had confronted my daughter-in-law that night. He denied completely that he spoke to her by leaving his desk and following her on the travelator, at the transfer area. The name of this officer is Mr. Vinod Kumar, Designation Immigration assistant.
I request you to kindly take action on this officer and also provide the evidence of CCTV camera footage of that transfer area, that night.
This crime should be taken up very seriously, considering that a Government officer had the audacity to misbehave in such a secure area, such as the airport with a single lady.
In light of such bad media coverage of Delhi, as a city synonymous with poor protection of women, the last resort will be highlighting this event to the press and media.
I kindly request you to send me an acknowledgement and your further plan of action.
Best Regards.
Â
Â