The Foreigners Regional Registration Officer (FRRO), serving under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in Chennai told Madras High Court that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is yet to respond to a 2022 request for issuance of travel documents to deport four convicts in the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi assassination case to Sri Lanka.
In a status report filed before Justices R. Sureshkumar and K. Kumaresh Babu on Monday, FRRO P.Ve. Arunshakthikumar said a communication was sent to the MEA (Consular Division) on November 12, 2022, for the issuance of travel documents to four Sri Lankan convicts who had been released from prison on Supreme Court orders, after 30 years of incarceration.
“The same has been pending at MEA. In continuation, another communication was sent to MEA (Consular Division) vide Letter No. 19/F/FRRO-CH/2023-2201 dated November 29, 2023, requesting to expedite the issuance of travel documents. The reply is still awaited,” the status report filed through central government counsel K. Subbu Ranga Bharathi read.
The report was filed in response to a writ petition filed by one of the convicts Santhan alias T. Suthendraraja, lodged in a foreigners detention centre at Tiruchi after his release from prison, seeking a direction to the Centre to deport him immediately in order to attend to his ailing mother in Sri Lanka.
In an affidavit filed through his counsel M. Radhakrishnan, the petitioner told the court that after his release from prison, the MHA had passed an order on November 11, 2022, directing him not to move out of the boundaries of the foreigners detention centre till his deportation to the home country.
However, since his 75-year-old mother residing at Valvetti in Jaffna was seriously ill, he wanted to go to his homeland immediately. Accepting a request for a short accommodation for the appearance of Additional Solicitor General AR.L. Sundaresan, the judges decided to hear the case on Wednesday.
The judges decided to hear on that day, yet another writ petition filed by convict Murugan alias V. Sriharan, also a Sri Lankan, who wanted a photo identity card to be issued to him so that he could apply for an Aadhaar card. The FRRO told the court that illegal immigrants were not entitled to Aadhaar cards.
Mr. Arunshakthikumar said foreigners residing legally in India for more than 182 days were entitled to an Aadhaar card and use it as a proof of residence for foreigners in India. However, for doing so, they must be in possession of a valid passport and visa and that the writ petitioner possessed neither.
