India deported a German national in the early hours of Tuesday for anti-national activities in the form of helping raise funds to part-finance ongoing protests against the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in southern Tamil Nadu.
Sonnteg Reiner Hermann, 49, described by the police as a social activist, was put on a Lufthansa flight bound for Frankfurt around 2 am from Chennai.
“He was verbally informed that his visa was being cancelled for indulging in anti-national activities,” a senior police officer said.
In New Delhi, acting ambassador of Germany, Meier Klodt said, “Through our channels we have been informed that by now the German has left the country. I don't have any more information at my disposal.”
Hermann, who has visited India many times, was in Tamil Nadu on a tourist visa. Acting on an alert by a central agency, the Q branch (intelligence wing) of Tamil Nadu Police had picked him up from a low-budget hotel at Nagercoil, some 650 km south of Chennai, on Monday.
The intelligence department had been tracking Hermann’s movement for the past three days. Police seized his laptop and found from his phone records that he was in constant touch with activist RS Lal Mohan.
{{/usCountry}}The intelligence department had been tracking Hermann’s movement for the past three days. Police seized his laptop and found from his phone records that he was in constant touch with activist RS Lal Mohan.
{{/usCountry}}“I did not know he was involved in raising funds for protesters. But being anti-nuclear does not mean being anti-national," said Mohan, who runs an NGO from Nagercoil.
The crackdown on the German national comes within days of PM Manmohan Singh blaming American and Scandinavian NGOs of stoking the protests against the Rs 13,000-crore Indo-Russian project.
SP Udayakumar, convenor of the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy denied that his organisation had any ties with Hermann.