Stuck for 13 hours: Shooters’ nightmare at Delhi airport

New Delhi : A 13-member shooting contingent returning from two separate championships — Plezn Grand Prix of Liberation Championships in Czech Republic and the World Cup in Cyprus — was stranded at the international airport here for close to 13 hours after Customs Department refused to clear their weapons.
No National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) office-bearer turned up at the airport to resolve the matter and help them, the shooters The Tribune spoke with alleged.
The shooters alleged that the calls made by them to a Sports Ministry official didn’t elicit any positive response and they were left to fend for themselves.
Heena, Gurpreetamong sufferers
The contingent had Olympians Heena Sidhu, Gurpreet Singh, Kynan Chenai and Chain Singh, among others. At the Plezn World Cup (rifle/pistol), the shooters won seven medals. The shotgun shooters from Cyprus returned empty-handed. The shooters reached the airport here in two batches around 4:30 am. They were able to leave with their weapons only around 5 pm after Customs Department received a clearance note from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI).
The shooters, deprived of sleep and proper food after a 20-hour journey from Plezn, explained to the Customs officials that they were carrying licensed guns with serial numbers and necessary travel documents, duly stamped by their department when they left India. However, it did not help.
Prashant Bishnoi case
DRI had directed Customs Department not to clear weapons after over a hundred illegally imported firearms were seized from the residence of a former national level shooter, Prashant Bishnoi, in Meerut late last month. Bishnoi’s house in Meerut was raided after the arrest of three persons at Delhi airport for illegally bringing foreign arms and ammunition into the country. After this, international shooters and their weapons have been subject to very stringent checks by the Customs officials — which, it seems, NRAI was not aware of.
In a mess
“I am currently in a mess, tired and buggered,” said trap shooter Kynan Chenai. Chenai and the others were angry because they all missed connecting flights to their hometowns.
“When we left for Cyprus, the same Customs officials had checked our documents, arms licences, Customs letter with stamp, signature of Customs officer and serial number on our guns,” he added. “Now I don’t know what happened, on our return they detained us. They checked our gun numbers and told us to stay back as they didn’t have the clearance from DRI. Every half-an-hour, they would say ‘we’ll free you soon’. But it became 13 hours. Had it not been for G Srinivas’s (a Customs official) efforts, we would have been stuck for longer.”
Gurpreet, who won the team gold in the 25m pistol event, said it was a humiliating experience to be held up “in my own country”.

Stuck in London too
“During the 2012 London World Cup, we were held up at the airport for seven long hours,” Gurpreet added. “It was a nightmarish experience. I thought it happened because it was a foreign land. But I was wrong. One has to understand we travel to international championships on a regular basis. The federation (NRAI) and the Sports Ministry must do something to free us of this ordeal in future.”
Chenai and Gurpreet fear that they might have to go through the ordeal soon again as the Indian shooters travel to Munich on May 16 for the World Cup.
NRAI president Raninder Singh could not be reached for his comments as his mobile phone was switched off.