An Indian entrepreneur has claimed that she was detained and physically harassed at an airport in the United States for eight long hours by the police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Shruti Chaturvedi said that the officials at Anchorage airport, Alaska, detained her because they “found the powerbank in her handbag suspicious”. She alleged that she was not only physically checked by a male officer on camera, but also made to strip off her warm wear. 

Shruti Chaturvedi levelled these allegations in a post on X (formerly Twitter) and tagged External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar and the official spokesperson of the ministry, Randhir Jaiswal. 

“Imagine being detained by the police and the FBI for 8 hours,” she said, adding that she was being questioned for the “most ridiculous things”. 

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She further alleged that she was “physically checked by a male officer on camera” and held in a cold room where she was “stripped of her warm clothes”. Chaturvedi, who visited Alaska to see northern lights, said that the officials took away her wallet and mobile phone, barring her from making any calls to India. 

“…Being questioned the most ridiculous things, physically checked by a male officer on camera, stripped off warm wear, mobile phone, wallet, kept in chilled room, not allowed to use a restroom, or make a single phone call, made to miss my flight – all because the airport security found my powerbank in my handbag ‘suspicious’,” Chaturvedi shared her ordeal online. 

In a separate post, she shared that she is “alright” and posted about her experience after she left the US territory. 

“They let my friend and me go after 8 hours of nonsense and not finding anything. They still kept the whole luggage bag and gave a frivolous duffle to keep luggage,” the 31-year-old said. 

Chaturvedi, who is building two startups – India Action Project and Chaaipani, further expressed, “Out of India, Indians are pretty powerless. Especially when you aren’t even allowed to make a phone call to anyone in India.”

In response to her post, one social media user wrote, “This is scary and way beyond someone’s imagination. Hope you’re alright.”

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Another joined, “Just asking, how else are we supposed to carry the power bank? It’s not allowed in check-in luggage either.”

“This is horrifying, but sadly not shocking. The fact that a power bank can trigger hours of detention says more about performative security than actual safety,” said a third, hoping that the government will follow up. 

One social media user asked about why the FBI was involved: “FBI? Why would the FBI be involved in a normal case of tourism or business?”