HC rejects refugee’s plea to transfer him to Coimbatore

He wanted to be united with family

The Madras High Court Bench here has rejected the plea of a Sri Lankan refugee, K. Arulinbathevar alias Ayya, facing a criminal case on a charge of cheating other refugees by promising to take them to Australia, to transfer him from a special camp at Tiruchi to the one in Coimbatore where his wife and children have been lodged.

Justice P.N. Prakash dismissed a writ petition filed by him on several grounds, including the absence of a right conferred on a refugee to demand such a transfer from one camp to another.

The judge pointed out that the petitioner had come to India along with his family in 2009 due to ethnic violence in Sri Lanka.

The State government had provided them accommodation at a refugee camp at Malayandipattinam in Kottapattu in Coimbatore district. However, he was arrested by the ‘Q’ Branch Criminal Investigation Department in June last.

The charge pressed against him was that he and a few others had collected around ₹1.5 lakh from several other refugees on the promise of taking them to Australia.

According to the prosecution case, the complainants were de-boarded from a boat off Kanniyakumari coast on the pretext that the journey could not be continued due to police presence.

Though a Sessions Court in Kanniyakumari district granted bail to the petitioner on October 5, it ordered that he should be lodged at a special camp for refugees in Tiruchi.

Assailing the decision, the petitioner contended that he should have been given an opportunity of hearing before deciding to keep him away from his family.

He also argued that the Tiruchi special camp was established exclusively for lodging LTTE sympathisers and it was wrong to lodge him there. Rejecting both the contentions, the judge said there was no necessity to hear a refugee before passing an order under Section 3(2)(e) of the Foreigners Act, 1946, to lodge him in a particular camp.

In so far as the other contention was concerned, the judge said: “It is true that the Tiruchi camp was established to house the LTTE cadres and sympathisers. It is common knowledge that LTTE operations have almost come to an end and therefore, it cannot be said that the space in the camp cannot be used for housing other foreigners who are involved in offences in this country.”