A 40-year-old Polish man has been arrested in Tamil Nadu for entering India from Sri Lanka without any valid documents, police said on Monday.
Polish national is identified as Władysław Franoszek Matuszewski. Locals had found him roaming around villages close to Kodiyakarai in Nagapattinam district on Sunday.
After Nagapattinam police arrested him, a local court remanded him to Puzhal jail.
On Monday, he was being transported to Chennai, even as state police have informed the union home ministry about the arrest.
“The man did not have a passport. He has entered (India) via sea on an inflated boat,” Nagapattinam district superintendent of police G Jawahar told HT. “He has been in Sri Lanka since 2019. He got arrested in some cases. So, he says he doesn’t have his passport. He was planning to go to Chennai and then to the Polish embassy in Delhi so that he could return to Poland,” Jawahar said.
Locals tipped off police about an inflated boat near Kodiyakarai (Point Calimere) in Vedaranyam in the district on Sunday.
Tamil Nadu police are on high alert since the 44th Chess Olympiad is being conducted in Mahabalipuram (57 km from Chennai) from July 28 onwards. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the event.
{{/usCountry}}Tamil Nadu police are on high alert since the 44th Chess Olympiad is being conducted in Mahabalipuram (57 km from Chennai) from July 28 onwards. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the event.
{{/usCountry}}“So, we immediately started intensive search operations and heightened security in the coastal areas,” the official quoted above said. “We found the kayak first.”
Officials said it was doubtful, if he could have reached all the way from Sri Lanka on an inflated boat. He might have been dropped off by a motorised boat half-way, he said.