Hours after Indian entrepreneur Shruti Chaturvedi shared on social media that she was held at a US airport for eight hours, physically checked by a male officer on camera, and asked to remove her warm wear, her story went viral with the exaggerated version that she had been strip-searched by a male officer.
The claim, however, is misleading. While Chaturvedi was physically checked by a male officer, she was not subjected to a strip search. She was asked to remove her warm clothes and was held in a chilled room during her detention.
The misinformation stemmed from several articles carried by media organisations with sensational headlines such as “checked by male officer, stripped”; “stripped, checked by male officer”; “stripped, no restroom break” and that she appealed to “MEA after getting stripped by a male officer”.
Shruti Chaturvedi detained at US airport
Shruti Chaturvedi was returning from a vacation in Alaska with her friend when she was stopped at the airport. Airport security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officials detained her after finding a power bank in her handbag, which they flagged “suspicious”.
Following this, she spent eight hours in detention, during which she faced what she called “ridiculous” questioning. She said she was “physically checked by a male officer on camera, stripped off warm wear while being held in a chilled room”.
Chaturvedi further said that she was not allowed to use the restroom or make any phone calls during the detention. She also missed her scheduled flight due to the prolonged questioning. The incident happened at Anchorage airport, Alaska, USA.
“Imagine being detained by Police and FBI for 8 hours, 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 your flight – all because the airport security found your powerbank in handbag ‘suspicious’,” Chaturvedi wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
She added, “I don’t have to imagine, already past the worst 7 hours. And we all know why,” and tagged External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar and the official spokesperson of the ministry, Randhir Jaiswal.
The 31-year-old said that after hours of questioning and checks, she and her friend were eventually released when officials found no reason to hold them further. However, she noted that her original suitcase was confiscated, and she was given a substandard duffle bag to carry her belongings.
“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,” adding that she is “alright” and shared her ordeal online only after leaving US territory.
Hi! I am alright and posted this only after I was out of USA. They let me and my friend 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. Anyway – the point is – out of India Indians are…
— Shruti Chaturvedi 🇮🇳 (@adhicutting) April 8, 2025
Who is Shruti Chaturvedi?
Shruti Chaturvedi, who said that “Indians are powerless outside the country”, is an entrepreneur based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. She is building two startups- India Action Project and Chaaipani.
While The India Action Project is “bridging the gap between communities of Bharat and mainstream businesses to support and boost rural commerce”, Chaaipani, her first startup, is a “platform to discover, share and positively act on inspiring stories of people” and has an action-driven community of over 1.5 lakh people.
Chaturvedi is an engineering dropout with a degree in Psychology and a diploma in Journalism & Mass Communication from St. Xavier’s College, Ahmedabad. Her career began in 2012 as an intern at The Times of India. She later worked as a TV reporter for Sandesh and joined AIESEC as a human resources coordinator.
She has also interned at The Coca-Cola Company and Dexter Consultancy before founding her company. She has received several awards, including the Karamveer Global Fellowship and the Build India Award.
