india

Updated: Jan 10, 2019 11:49 IST

A man from Tamil Nadu has said he was humiliated at an immigration counter of Mumbai’s international airport “for knowing only Tamil and English and NOT Hindi”, prompting the immigration department to initiate an investigation against one of their officers.

Abraham Samuel alleged on Twitter late on Tuesday that the immigration officer at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport continued “his disgraceful speech” even after complaining.

“The only reason i left was because my flight was scheduled to be boarded at 1:00 AM. Otherwise i would have stayed to lodge a formal complaint against this nincampoop! How do idiots like him make way into the indian government? He is a disgrace! @SushmaSwaraj @MEAIndia (sic),” Samuel said in one of his tweets tagging the foreign minister and the external affairs ministry.

“No one in India should be denied immigration for not knowing hindi! Such a disgraceful and arrogant behavior by this immigration officer in counter 33 at Mumbai CST! Hope this is the last instance of this in India (sic)!” he said.

A senior immigration official said Samuel cleared the immigration within four minutes and that the officer has been temporarily taken off duty.

“We regret that such an incident took place at Mumbai airport. The said officer who has been taken off the counter, pending investigation, will be given soft skill training and his counselling will be done,” said another senior immigration officer.

“The nature of the allegations are very serious and hence we are investigating it in detail. The inquiry report will make things clear and allow us to know what happened within those four minutes,” the officer said.

The incident report is expected by Thursday afternoon.