Air India — Denied boarding for no fault of ours

Address:

New Delhi

• Date of Incident: 7th Jan/2023.
• Place of Incident: IGI New Delhi Airport, India.
• PNR Number: NJKCC6.
• Flight No:AI0971 (From Delhi to Doha/QATAR)
• Total No of Passengers = 4.
We are family of 4, me, my wife and 2 sons. We live in TEXAS, USA. We are US Citizen( of Indian Origin).
After ending our vacation India, we were on our way to USA via Doha, QATAR.
We had booked a Hotel in Doha via Booking.com to explore the city of Doha, before starting our Journey from Doha to Dallas, TX via a Transit in Helsinki, Finland.
Upon checking-in at Delhi IGI Airport on 01/07/23 at Delhi Airport check-in counter, we are told that we cannot board the flight because our Hotels were not booked via Discoverqatar.qa Portal.

We were unaware of this requirement while booking Hotel in Doha.We asked them to check this requirement for US Citizens, on which they mentioned that it is for all countries.

We called discoverqatar.qa folks at discoverqatar.qa at +[protected].
They mentioned that we do not need to book Hotels via www.discoverqatar.qa since we are US Citizens.This requirement is valid for citizen of Indian, Pakistani, Iranian, Ukrainian and Thai Nationalities.
We also checked the following websites which are owned by Govt. of Qatar.

None of these Websites mentions about this Hotel Booking requirement https://www.discoverqatar.qa/mandatory-hotels-for-visa-on-arrival
https://portal.moi.gov.qa/qatarvisas/faq.html
https://visitqatar.com/intl-en/practical-info/visas.

We also called discoverqatar.qa folks at discoverqatar.qa at +[protected].

We pleaded with the Air India to check on this requirement and requested them to allow us to board the flight.
No one listened to us and eventually we were denied boarding.

We missed our flights which impacted our onward journey, not to mention about amount of hardship/inconvenience and pain we as as family went through.

Note: Once we were denied boarding, I have chatted with Qatar Airways, https://visitqatar.com ( from Minstry of Qatar) and sent an email to discoverqatar.qa. All of them confirmed that we do not need to book a Hotel via DiscoverQatar.com.

I want Air India to provide an explanation why this harassment was done to us, for which my family had to face unimaginable hardship.
I want Air India to provide a full refund and compensation .