NEW DELHI: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Friday that it is closely monitoring two separate cases involving Indian nationals abroad.
In the first case, Ranjani Srinivasan, who recently left the United States and is believed to have traveled to Canada, has not contacted the Indian consulate or embassy for assistance. The MEA only became aware of her departure through media reports.
“We are not aware of her getting in touch with our consulate or our embassy for any help. We only came to know of her departure from the United States through media reports, and through the media reports, we understand that she has gone to Canada,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in his weekly briefing.
Srinivasan, 37, an international PhD student from India, self-deported to Canada recently. According to The New York Times, she did not open the door when three immigration agents knocked.
The agents returned the next night, but she was not home. Instead, she had packed a few belongings, left her cat with a friend, and taken a flight to Canada from LaGuardia Airport.
When the agents returned a third time with a judicial warrant, she was already gone.
“The atmosphere seemed so volatile and dangerous,” Srinivasan told The New York Times. “So I just made a quick decision.”
In another case, Indian scholar Badar Khan Suri was detained in the US over alleged ties to Hamas. A US judge has temporarily blocked his deportation.
According to the MEA, neither the US government nor Suri has approached the Indian embassy for assistance.
“We are given to understand through media reports that this individual has been detained. Neither the US government nor the individual has approached us or the embassy,” Jaiswal said.
Suri, a postdoctoral fellow, was detained outside his home in Arlington’s Rosslyn neighborhood in Virginia on Monday night, according to his lawyer, who has filed a lawsuit seeking his immediate release.
A US district judge has issued an order preventing Suri’s removal from the country until further court rulings.