Really sorry, says minister after woman 'forcefully lifted' from wheelchair at Mumbai airport

Virali Modi, a disability rights activist, had taken to Twitter to lodge her protest against the alleged treatment meted out to her by CISF at the Mumbai airport.

NEW DELHI: Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha apologised to a specially-abled woman who alleged that she was forcefully lifted from her wheelchair by CISF personnel for security checks. Asking for an inquiry to be initiated in the case, he tweeted: "Really sorry for the suffering that you went through @CISFHQrs @CSIAMumbai please follow up."

Virali Modi, a disability rights activist, had taken to Twitter to lodge her protest against the alleged treatment meted out to her by a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel at the Mumbai airport. 

Really sorry for the suffering that you went through @CISFHQrs @CSIAMumbai please follow up #AirSewa https://t.co/34aVKFf3Ni

— Jayant Sinha (@jayantsinha) November 27, 2018

Virali claimed that she suffered "major cramps" as she was forcefully lifted from her wheelchair. "I'm travelling to London from Mumbai via @jetairways and I had the most horrible experience with the CISF staff. After scanning my wheelchair, this insensitive woman was forcing me to stand up, even when I told her repeatedly that I couldn't. She kept forcing me to stand up and then she went on to say that she'd lift me up and get someone else to pat my backside. After many denied requests, she lifted my leg up forcefully, causing a major cramp," she wrote on her Twitter handle.

Virali, in a series of tweets, described her agony, saying, "The cramp was so painful that my leg went into a spasm which made it cramp even more. I wanted to file a complaint about the way she treated me, but her senior was nowhere in sight. Is this how the CISF are trained?"

She alleged that the CISF personnel was "incredible insensitive" and the way she was treated was "NOT how you treat a disabled passenger!"

"Every other international airport has chemical strips to check the wheelchair and shoes, a disabled passenger doesn't need to get out of her wheelchair. So why at Mumbai's International Airport?"

However, CISF denied the allegations, saying the checks were carried out on her in accordance with the procedure. The CISF said: "check was carried out as per procedure and any inconvenience meted out was unintentional. Security is of prime importance, at the same time, CISF takes care of specially-abled/needy passengers in a dignified manner".

CISF officials also added that she was asked to move to a nearby frisking area at the airport as her wheelchair was large and could not be scanned in the x-ray machine, while denying any forceful or rude conduct by the security personnel who cleared the passenger to board the flight.

Virali, who describes herself as a disabled rights activist on Twitter, said the incident was not about a woman not understanding a woman's trouble, but about human rights.

"Forget about a woman not understanding, this is basically about human rights and disability rights. This is not how a disabled passenger should be treated. Simple," she said.