Police in a quandary over deporting Russian national

The Tamil Nadu police are in a dilemma over the deportation of a Russian national who has completed two months of imprisonment in a Passport Act case.

According to a source in the intelligence, Pomerantsev Victor (30) holding a Russian passport was arrested by the Bazaar Police in Ramanathapuram on April 2 on charges of not possessing valid travel documents. A local court convicted him to two months in prison. In his order, the Judge directed the police to take steps for deporting Victor (after imprisonment) to his country through the proper channel.

While officials at the Consulate General of Russian Federation here expressed their helplessness to send Victor back, the Ministry of Home Affairs has asked the State police to take immediate steps to deport him and send a proposal to blacklist his name.

Since the process of deporting appeared to be a time-consuming process and a constant surveillance had to be maintained on Victor, police lodged him in the Special Camp at Chengalpattu after obtaining a specific order form the State government. At the Special Camp, the Russian national allegedly tried to desecrate an idol of Lord Ganesh creating ruckus on the campus recently.

On September 7, the Tahsildhar of Chengalpattu sent a report to the Government stating that Victor misbehaved with the women and some inmates tried to attack him. When police tried to intervene, they were attacked. A case was registered against four Sri Lankan Tamils — G. Ramanan (36), D. Reginald (27), D. Yogaraja (29) and G. Bharathidasan alias Bharathi (26) — following the incident.

The Tahsildhar urged the Government to immediately remove Victor from the camp to avoid problems there. “When we approached officials at the Consulate General of Russian Federation, they said Victor was deported to Russia on two occasions from India after police arrested him on similar charges. The Indian Embassy in Moscow was informed not to give him a visa again. They said it would not be possible for them to deport him now,” an investigator told ‘

The Hindu’ here on Thursday.

However, when the police wanted a written reply from the consulate authorities, they asked them to route such a request through the Ministry of External Affairs. “There are repeated complaints from the Special Camp that Victor is misbehaving there. It is becoming imperative to remove him from that campus. We are now writing to the Ministry of External Affairs to handle the matter of deportation,” a police official added.