Actor Siddharth, who is primarily known for his work in Tamil and Hindi, recently alleged that he and his family were harassed by CISF personnel at the Madurai airport. According to the actor, the staff were rude to them, questioning their identity and repeatedly examining their passports.

“The CISF individual sitting behind the glass kept checking our IDs, including the children’s passports. Then he looked at my face and Adhaar card and shouted, ‘yeh tum ho?’ When I told him it was me and asked him why he asked me that when my ID looks exactly like me, he said he had doubts (sic),” the actor wrote on Instagram.

Earlier, in his Instagram story, the actor criticized the imposition of Hindi on the family even though they were at the Madurai airport. According to the actor, they kept talking to him in Hindi even though he and his family were replying in English. “Another individual shouted at us and asked, Hindi samajhte hain na?” And before we responded he rudely proceeded to throw away any ipads or phones he found,” he wrote.

“When we asked them to speak English, the response I got was, ‘Dekho, there are rules and regulations in India.’

The actor added that he was traveling with three elders, two young children and a few adults from Madurai. “I told them we have elders in the group so they can be gentle with them. They then marked my mother’s purse and asked her if she had any coins in it. She said yes. She was then told to take all the coins out of her purse. When I asked them why this was needed since currency coins are allowed and clearly visible in the scanner, they replied that in India it is a rule that we have to remove anything they ask us to. I believe it is unfair to let them empty the wallet of over 70 people like this. I also asked if something was going on and why he was talking to us so rudely,” said the actor.

According to him, another person also shouted at the nurse and asked why she was carrying medical injections. He also wanted to know what the health problem was, the actor claimed. “One of the children has syringes for medical supplies that were in a clearly marked medicine bag. My sister asked him to speak to her in private. Why was the curious gentleman asking for medical data of a sensitive nature over open spaces. Is it fair to expose people’s personal information like this?,” he asked.

The actor says he decided to explain his experience as many people, including media houses, approached him to get clarity on the incident.