New Delhi, March 27 (IANS): An immigration officer has been suspended for alleged verbal sexual harassment of a woman passenger who took a flight to Hong Kong on March 18 from Delhi, a home ministry official said on Friday.

"The immigration officer has been suspended and a departmental inquiry has been initiated," the official told IANS on the condition of anonymity.

Speaking to Times Now, the woman, a homemaker whose identity was not revealed, claimed that immigration officer Vinod Kumar harassed her by asking "several uncomfortable personal questions".

The woman alleged that she was at the immigration counter before she boarded the flight for Hong Kong, where she went to meet her husband.

She said the immigration officer not only harassed her during the immigration process at the desk, but also by following her along at the escalator between the domestic and international transfer.

"He asked me questions like how many children I have, do I drink, do I smoke or eat chicken. He also asked me whether I sleep with other men when my husband is at work," the woman told the news channel.

"Not once or twice, but he asked me four times if I had undergone a surgery for birth control. He even asked whether I would like to have my third child with him," she said.

The woman's father-in-law has filed a complaint with Commissioner, Bureau Of Immigration, Delhi, P.K. Bhardwaj via e-mail on March 23 after the woman returned from her Hong Kong trip.

After the media highlighted the issue, the home ministry, under which the immigration department falls, took action by suspending the immigration official and set up a departmental inquiry.