Entrepreneur Shruti Chaturvedi, the founder of Chaipani public relations firm, said she was held at a US airport for eight hours. She shared her experience in a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), saying she missed her flight and was not allowed to use the restroom during the long questioning.

Shruti was at the Anchorage airport in Alaska when security found a power bank in her handbag, which they thought was “suspicious.” This led to her being held by the police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

She claimed that she was treated very badly during the questioning. “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,’” Shruti wrote in her post.

She added, “I don’t have to imagine, already past the worst 7 hours. And we all know why,” tagging India’s Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and the Ministry of External Affairs.

Before the incident, Shruti had shared updates from her Alaska trip, including photos of the Northern Lights. On March 30, she wrote, “Flew to Alaska, drove through the Dalton Highway, crossed the Arctic Circle, and watched the Northern Lights from room balcony on the night I was not prepared to see one.”

So far, there has been no official response from US authorities or the Indian government about the incident.

 

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