E-Paper
Chinese woman in Bihar to be deported over visa rules; FIR against guest house
The Chinese national’s visa has been cancelled for violating rules and she has been slapped with a ‘Leave India’ notice
A Chinese woman staying in Bihar’s Gaya has been deported to her embassy in New Delhi and she will be subsequently deported to her country for violating visa rules, police said on Friday. The Gaya police have also lodged a first information report (FIR) against the Ashish International Guest House, where she was staying, for the violation of the Foreigners Act.
The foreign national, Song Xiaolan, 40, was located from the guest house at Maharani Road under the jurisdiction of Bodh-Gaya police station after intelligence agency issued her sketch late on Wednesday evening. A search was launched for her after an intimation from FRRO said that she had violated visa norms that allowed her to stay for not more than 90 days at a stretch. She has been in India since October 2019.
Additional director general of police (headquarters) Jitendra Singh Gangwar said that the Chinese national’s visa has been cancelled by the Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office (FRRO) at Kolkata and she has been slapped with a “Leave India” notice.
A police team led by the station house officer (SHO) of Gaya’s women police station brought her to New Delhi on Friday.
Police said that the guest house owner failed to fill the form C. As per rules, it is mandatory for the hotel/guest house to fill up the form C manually and submit it to the police station concerned when foreigners check in to the hotel. Along with the manual system, the Ministry of Home Affairs has introduced the online registration system of filling the form C from April 2014.
Gaya senior superintendent of police (SSP) Harpreet Kaur told HT on Friday that it is mandatory for any hotel/guest house to fill Form C after a foreigner on a tourist visa checked-in and submit it to the Foreigner Regional Office (FRO) within 24 hours. “It will help keep track on the day-to-day movement of places he/she visits throughout India during stay,” said Harpreet, adding that the Ashish International Guest House violated the norms and police lodged an FIR against them under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act and Section 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The Chinese woman, along with a Nepali woman citizen, had been staying in the guest house since December 22, coinciding with the Dalai Lama’s visit to the international pilgrimage centre. Both claimed to be followers of the Buddhist preacher . They were detained for interrogation on Thursday evening. The Nepali citizen was released after the interrogation. Police could not recover any objectionable items from their possession. The Nepali citizen came in contact with the Chinese woman during their stay in Dharamshala (Himachal Pradesh) a month ago.
On August 2, this year Union minister Nityanand Rai told the Lok Sabha that 117 Chinese nationals were deported between 2019 to 2021 for violation of visa rules.
