Physically Checked by a Male Officer: Indian Woman's US Airport Ordeal

Shruti Chaturvedi, a known Indian influencer and founder of Chaaipani, has shared a disturbing incident she faced at Alaska’s airport in the United States. She was allegedly treated in an inhumane manner  and was detained for 8 hours by airport authorities over a power bank found in her handbag, which they called “suspicious”.

According to her post shared on Tuesday on X (formerly Twitter), Shruti was detained for over 7-8 hours by airport officials and US federal agents. She was physically searched by a male officer, on camera and stripped of her warm clothing in freezing conditions, “denied access to a restroom”, not allowed to “make a single phone call”, and “ultimately made to miss her flight”. The root cause, she says, was the “suspicion” over her power bank during a routine security check.

The incident took place earlier this week, though she shared the full account of her ordeal publicly on social media on Tuesday.

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The incident unfolded at an airport in Alaska, United States, a transit point in her journey that turned into a traumatic memory.

Shruti also might have hinted at discrimination against the Indians in foreign land as in her tweet at the end she sarcastically wrote, “I don’t have to imagine, already past the worst 7 hours. And we all know why. "

Shruti tagged India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and the Ministry of External Affairs, appealing for their intervention. Her post, which has drawn widespread attention, calls into question how Indian citizens, especially women are being handled abroad under suspicion, without due procedure or sensitivity.

While there has been no official comment yet from Indian authorities or the US airport involved, her post has sparked outrage on social media, with many urging the Indian government to take up the matter strongly with their US counterparts.