Chennai Airport — rude and harassment by police in chennai international terminal

Address:	Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Website:	www.aai.aero/en/airports/chennai

Dear sh. G. Chandramouli, airport director and team,

I am sadden to report a complaint about an unnecessary harassment happened against me on saturday 3rd november 2018 at 22:30.

I was born in india and later settled in uk. I am not indian citizen anymore. I am british. I travel frequently as i do most of my work online/internet so i don’t need to be physically present in uk. And i love to travel to other countries as well. Once in 2 months, i visit my family living in tamilnadu, stay with them for a month and leave to other countries for travel. On saturday 3rd nov 2018, i was leaving the country heading to malaysia. I finished the immigration departure procedures and my british passport was stamped as “departed on 3rd nov” and as i was heading to security clearance, i was stopped by 3 gentlemen who they didn’t identify themselves first, later when i asked, they said, they are police – but clearly they were not wearing any police uniform.

One of them, got my passport and my oci card, and started questions like why are visiting india, what’s the purpose and all.. I gently answered, that i am visiting my family for a month and leaving the country. And i also told that i am visiting india every 2 months as i don’t need a visa, i am a oci card holder and i can visit any time i want. But the gentleman started questioning more harshly later and rudely saying, “i can’t believe you are a genuine person or you have a genuine reason to visit india”, “why are visiting the country often and don’t tell me lies”, “why are you spending so much money for travel”, “you can’t come to the country often”, “ we will track you down wherever you go”, “why are you not married so far” etc., travelling to many countries, spending money, and staying in india is my wish and nobody can question unless i am committing a crime or pose a threat to the country. Will they question a white guy or american and ask questions like this? After a long time, they let me go.

This is not the first time this happened – i faced these kind of interrogation almost 6 times, especially in chennai. I traveled from/to coimbatore directly to singapore, from cochin multiple times, i flew to malaysia, uk, germany multiple times – nowhere i was questioned like a criminal. Only in this so-called chennai international airport, so much harassment. There is a level to which harassment can be tolerated. And it’s my right to visit the country anytime i want and the police shouldn’t be in the jurisdiction at all to advise me. They can’t tell i shouldn’t be traveling and i waste money by airlines, it’s my business after all.

Instead of focusing your attention to innocent public, first try to improve the long line of people standing in queue daily in immigration, long line in security checks, long line in boarding, the longest walk from domestic to international terminal and vise-versa, minicab (Operated by chennai airport) drivers asking for bribery tips if we ask them to drop from domestic to international terminal when the service is free, when all the countries are already implemented e-gates 15 years, no e-gates until now. Well, something is coming on the way, but it’s only for us not for indians.

Please give your focus on things that matters and improve the services, rather than sending 3 police in mufti and interrogating foreigners. The so-called police were standing between immigration and security clearance. Please try to stop giving any disturbing experience any more.