Uday Kusupati from IIT Bombay and two more students from IIT Delhi, pursuing their research internship in Nice, France, were detained for over 10 hours in Italy while en route to France. They were travelling through Italy via a connecting train and were detained by the Italian security. What’s even more baffling is that the IITs couldn’t do much to help them, because the former were unaware of this situation.

“A group of citizens from another nation were travelling without a passport in the same train as my brother. Some kind of miscommunication led the security to assume that my brother and his companions were a part of that same group. Despite trying to show their passports to the security, they were detained for over 10 hours,” said Uday’s brother Aditya Kusupati, a third year student at IIT Bombay.

Uday, along with the two IIT Delhi students, Akshit Goyal and Deepak Bhatt, were flown to Bari, Italy in a flight, for inspection. “My brother contacted me just once before they were taken in, and after that we lost contact for nearly 10 hours,” Aditya added. The IITians’ families first contacted the Indian embassy which was closed at that hour. Later that night, at 10:30pm IST, the students’ professor guides in France informed the families that a “passport verification” was underway. Personnel from the Indian embassy were finally contacted by their company in Nice.   

When PaGaLGuY contacted IIT Bombay’s Placement cell, the latter were unaware of the entire episode. Atul S, an officer with IIT-B’s placement cell, said, “The students didn’t secure the internship through the placement cell. I have no idea of the incident, though I have been informed that the students are now safe and have reached their hostels.”

Uday Kusupati, who reached France around 2 pm the next day, informed his family that he was safe. “I am thankful to my professors and my family who got in touch with the concerned authorities and rescued me from this harrowing experience,” he said.