New Delhi: India on Thursday said that former Maldivian vice-president Ahmed Adheeb had not been permitted to enter Indian soil as “he was not entering India through a designated entry point and did not possess the valid document”.
According to news reports from Tamil Nadu on Thursday, Mr Adheeb was trying to reach India in a tugboat at Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu and was subsequently detained and questioned by security agencies even as there were indications that he was being sent back to his country.
Mr Adheeb was vice-president of the Maldives for a few months in 2015 but was removed from office after allegations that he had a hand in a purported bomb attack that had sought to target then President Abdulla Yameen.
Following this, Mr Adheeb had faced a probe in the Maldives. According to reports, Mr Adheeb had earlier undergone medical treatment in India.
In response to a “query on (a) former Vice President of Maldives not permitted entry into India, the MEA official spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, “There are designated entry points through which foreigners are allowed entry into India. The entry is facilitated on the basis of appropriate valid travel documents. In the instant case, since he was not entering India through a designated entry point and did not possess the valid document, he has not been permitted entry into India.”
Under current Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, India and the Maldives are now the closest of friends once again. President Solih’s assuming of office following his victory in the presidential polls against then President Abdulla Yameen last year had come as a huge relief for New Delhi. Mr Yameen was openly pro-China and had become a thorn in New Delhi’s flesh. The current Maldivian President has strengthened ties with New Delhi and reversed the widely-perceived slant towards Beijing that the Maldives had adopted during the controversial tenure of his predecessor Abdullah Yameen.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also visited the Maldives in June this year after returning to power in the Lok Sabha polls.
