Sudhaa Chandran, who was travelling from Mumbai to Hyderabad in an evening flight on Thursday, posted a video saying that every time she travels, she is forced to take off her artificial leg at security check.

In the video, which she addressed to the PM, the danseuse said, “I am an actress and dancer by profession, who has danced with an artificial limb and created history and made my country proud. But every time I go on my professional visits, I am stopped at the airport. And when I request them at the security and ask them (CISF officers) to please do an ETD test (Explosive Test Detector) for my artificial limb, they still want me to remove my artificial limb and show it to them. Is it humanly possible?”

When we reached out to the actress, she said, “The CISF officials need to be more polite with people, especially when they are dealing with people who are specially-abled. I have been travelling since years and each time I enter an airport I have to face rude behaviour of airport officials. It’s humiliating. I am okay to show them my leg as many times as they want because this is a matter of national security and I am a law-abiding citizen, but they need to be a little more sensitive towards people.”

She added, “It has been years that I have been facing this issue but this time pani mere sar ke upar se nikal gaya. That’s when I posted the video. In my opinion they should give some identity card to people so that all this trouble can be avoided.”

After Sudhaa posted the video online, TV actors like Karanvir Bohra, Adaa Khan, Charrul Malik, and Kunal Bakshi supported the actress. Many reposted her video on their social media accounts.

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After the dancer’s allegation, the CISF examined the incident on CCTV footage and said that on Thursday at 1729 hours, Sudhaa proceeded to the frisking section, and as the CISF officer on duty had a doubt about the process, she called another ASI. The brief shared by the CISF stated, “She frisked her and took a swab for ETD check and allowed her to proceed for boarding at about 1736 hours. At about 1836 hours, she boarded from B/G 50 for her destination.”

An ETD test is used to detect explosive particles or residue in swabs taken from objects.

Anil Pandey, a CISF spokesperson, told us, “We have specifically briefed our staff members at all the airports to ensure that no passenger should feel that they are being humiliated because of a prosthetic limb. We take utmost care and have a humanitarian approach while frisking all passengers, including those with prosthetic limbs. Sudhaa Chandran is a renowned actress, but even a non-celebrity is never asked to remove their artificial limb. We don’t know why she claimed it, but she was never asked to remove the artificial limb. It is a practice followed by the CISF to not ask anyone to remove any prosthetic limbs.”

However, the CISF official handle tweeted on Friday, “We are extremely sorry for the inconvenience caused to Ms Sudhaa Chandran. As per protocol, prosthetics are to be removed for security checks only under exceptional circumstances. We will examine why the lady personnel concerned requested Ms Sudhaa Chandran to remove the prosthetics. We assure that all our personnel will be sensitised again on the protocols.”