The Nepali Embassy in New Delhi has expressed concern after Nepali national Sambhavi Adhikari, who was on her way to attend a conference in Berlin, was offloaded by Qatar Airways at the Delhi airport.

The incident took place on October 10. According to the Nepal Airlines Corporation, Adhikari had travelled from Kathmandu to Delhi on an Air India flight.

She took up the matter in the social media platform Facebook, sparking a heated debate.

In an emotional post on Facebook, Adhikari narrated her experience at the Indira Gandhi International Airport saying that she was stopped abruptly, and treated as a suspected criminal.

“Airport officials questioned me relentlessly: who invited you? Why are you going? Are you really a student? Do you have enough money? Where will you stay? Why should someone like you from Nepal attend this conference? Who are the speakers, and which sessions will you attend?

“Until then, I remained calm. I showed all the documents I had and answered every question but my answers did not satisfy them.”

Then the social media users started questioning the government of India tagging several Indian government authorities and offices.

Later on November 1, India’s home ministry issued a statement that the incident had been wrongly portrayed as bias/discrimination against Nepali citizens.

“It is to clarify that the Indian immigration authorities have no role to play in this entire episode. The said passenger arrived from Kathmandu by Air India and was transiting through Delhi. She was stopped while boarding the connecting flight of Qatar Airways. It was the airlines which decided not to let her undertake her onward travel to Germany considering her visa validity and flew her back to Kathmandu,” the Indian statement read, clarifying that this is usually undertaken in accordance with the destination country’s rules and requirements.

The Indian home ministry also clarified that international transit passengers are not required to approach Indian Immigration for their onward journey and this is a matter between the airlines and the passenger with absolutely no role of Indian immigration authorities.

“Even after half an hour of continuous questioning, I was not allowed to proceed. Another official questioned me over the phone like I was a criminal. No respect, no courtesy. Just constant interrogation,” she wrote on Facebook. Finally, the officials said, “Your trip is suspicious.”

Then the officials tore up her boarding pass and locked her inside the airport for eight hours: “without my passport, without my bag, without food, water, or internet”.

“Only with the help of a kind Nepali traveller was I able to contact the Nepali embassy. The embassy tried to arrange my return through Nepal Airlines,” she said.

After the incident was widely reported in the media and social media, the Nepali Embassy in New Delhi stated that it will take up the matter of incidents in which Nepali citizens were stopped at Delhi Airport while in transit and sent back to Nepal with Qatar Airways and Lufthansa Airlines and other airlines.

“These consultations aim to prevent the recurrence of such cases in future,” the embassy wrote on the social media platform X.

On Tuesday, Nepal’s Ambassador Shankar Sharma met Qatar’s envoy to India, Mohammed Hassan Jabir Al-Jabir, and drew his attention to the incident.

According to Surendra Thapa, deputy chief of the Nepali Mission in Delhi, Ambassador Sharma inquired about the incident in which Sambhavi Adhikari was not allowed to travel to Berlin via Doha.

“Qatar’s envoy has expressed his commitment to contact the Qatar Airways office in Delhi, gather details about the incident, and inform the Nepali Mission accordingly,” Thapa told the Post over the phone from the Indian capital. “We will take up the matter with Lufthansa Airlines too.”

There is no role of Indian immigration in this episode, he added. The government has requested Indian immigration to check whether any Nepali national travelling to the Gulf possesses no objection letter (NOC).

Since Nepali women started visiting Gulf countries via Indian airports, the government has asked the Indian immigration to check whether they have the NOC or not. Those who are travelling to Europe and America via the Gulf do not face any hurdles at Indian airports, said Thapa, but someone going to Gulf countries on a visit visa using the Indian airports definitely faces questions and hurdles too.

In an initial report, the officials at Qatar Airways had raised issues like whether Adhikari had confirmed a return ticket from Berlin and her hotel-related documents are up to date. The embassy in New Delhi also discussed the matter with Nepal Airlines officials based in New Delhi who helped her at the airport and enabled her to return to Kathmandu after a dispute with the staff of Qatar Airways.

After Adhikari and the Qatar Airlines staff could not reach an understanding, they requested Air India staff to “send the passenger back to Nepal”, but Air India refused. After that, the airline contacted the Nepal Airlines Corporation office at the airport and asked them to take the passenger back.

Bhanu Bhakta Katwal, the Nepal Airlines’ airport manager in Delhi, took responsibility for Sambhavi Adhikari and helped her return to Kathmandu on a flight that evening.

Adhikari had also contacted the embassy hotline directly from the airport to inform them that she had been barred from travelling to Berlin, and that she then returned to Nepal.