Olympians Gurpeet Singh, Kynan Chenai along with over 10 other international shooters were held up at the Indira Gandhi International airport in New Delhi by the customs department for more than 12 hours on Tuesday, according to reports.
The shooters were made to wait at the Delhi aiport after authorities seized their guns.
“We have been waiting at the airport since 4 AM in the morning. And we still don’t know how long they will take to clear us. It is sad that such a thing is happening in our own country,” said one of the shooters, according a report in Firstpost. The shooter who did not wish to be named, added that they were not even aware of the exact reason behind it and the authority who was to clear them was supposed to arrive at 10 am, but didn’t come on time.
Earlier visuals of National Shooting Team members waiting at Delhi airport: Weapons of the team were seized by Customs, were later returned pic.twitter.com/alpRqLU8Gw
— ANI (@ANI_news) May 9, 2017
The incident angered India’s only individual Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra, who took to Twitter to blast the officials for this fiasco.
Saddened to hear that the National Shooting Team is detained at The IGI Airport with the customs refusing to clear their guns. 1/3
— Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) May 9, 2017
They are our countries ambassadors and should not be treated like this. Would this ever happen to our cricket team ? 2/3
— Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) May 9, 2017
Chatted with a few athletes and the lack of support coming through from the national federation is pathetic. @RaninderSingh @TheNrai
— Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) May 9, 2017
The official team manager of the shotgun team left this morning leaving the athletes to fend for them selves.
— Abhinav Bindra (@Abhinav_Bindra) May 9, 2017
Gurpreet Singh, Harpreet Singh, Pemba Tamang, Chain Singh, Sushil Ghale, Seema Tomar, Kynan Chenai and Ria Rageshwari are the shooters that were held up because of this confusion.
The fiasco did not end there as the shooters alleged that the authorities were rude towards them, according to the Times of India.
“We were sleep deprived, hungry. When we told this to the officer there, he said ‘you won’t die if you don’t eat’. We were left speechless. When we went for Plzen, the same department had issued us letters with their stamp and serial numbers of our guns. We have the same guns and the letters. We don’t have even a screw extra, but they don’t trust their own letters,” a shooter is reported as saying, according to the report.
According to the Times of India report, the shooters invited scrutiny as a few national shooters were arrested for smuggling illegal pistols last week.