Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said that India should protest if the deportees from the United States were handcuffed and shackled on their flight.
He also said that he was not happy about Americans choosing a military aircraft to send back Indian deportees.
“I am not happy about the Americans choosing to send a military aircraft,” Tharoor told ANI. “I have not seen any report on whether these returnees were also handcuffed and shackled. If they were, we should definitely protest.”
The US military aircraft, carrying 117 illegal Indian immigrants, landed in Amritsar on Saturday night.
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The C-17 aircraft, which landed at the Amritsar airport around 11.35 pm on Saturday, was carrying the second batch of Indians to be deported by the Donald Trump administration as part of its crackdown on illegal immigrants.
Deportees on board the military aircraft claimed that they were handcuffed and their legs were chained during the journey.
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“Our legs were chained, and hands were also cuffed,” one of the deportees, Daljit, told reporters in Hoshiarpur, according to PTI.
First flight and handcuff controversy
Earlier, the US military’s C-17 aircraft carrying Indian deportees arrived in Amritsar on February 5. A total of 104 Indian nationals were on board the plane that landed in Amritsar.
Many deportees claimed that their hands and legs were cuffed throughout the journey and they were unshackled only after landing in Amritsar.
This triggered nationwide outrage, with the opposition demanding Prime Minister Narendra Modi to raise the issue with the US during his visit to Washington.
After a widespread outcry in India, New Delhi had conveyed its concerns to Washington about the treatment of deportees.