KOCHI: With the US-based evangelist William Lee giving police the slip after breaking visa norms, the lack of sting in the Emigration Department and the police to keep a tab on people arriving with tourist visas and engaging in missionary activities is snowballing into a controversy.This is the second time that police have caught people from the US forattempting to address the religious sermons which is prohibited according to emigration norms this year. On June 13, 2011, three US women who had come on tourist visa were askedto leave the country following complaints that they were trying to attend religious prayer sessions in the coastal area of Alappuzha. According to police, such incidents occur mainly because these people don’t reveal their purpose of visit before the Emigration and Police departments. And there is lack of proper measure to monitor the movements of these people. Mostly the Pastors based in the US visit Kerala for missionary purposes. It is only after any intelligence report we detain these people. The Emigration Department also have not taken any measure to monitor their activities in the country and leave everything on the Police department, a police officer said.According to Assistant Kochi City Police Commissioner M N Ramesh, there is an increase in the number of people coming to Kerala with tourist visa and engaging in missionary activities. “We come to know about such incidents only when these people appear before the mass audiences. The smaller prayer meetings and conventions may go unnoticed. The information about such people are not passed to the police from the Emigration Department and we work by our own to detain them. It is mandatory for every tourist to register with the police and we have taken enough steps to curb such activities. But often they don’t reveal their real purpose of visit,” Ramesh said.The emigration officials said that these people mainly arrive here in tourist visa and there is no provision to monitor them. It is the police who have to check there purpose of visit. If anyone is suspected of breaking the visa norms, the police must give us directives to cancel the visa and deport them.Meanwhile, it is speculated that William Lee may surrender before the Kochi First Class Judicial Magistrate on Saturday. Assistant Commissioner Sunil Jacob said that the police are keeping a close watch on him and information are there that he has not left Ernakulam district. The police will arrest him before he surrenders at the court. The organising members of the Musical Splash 2011 have also gone absconding and information has been sent to every police station in this regard.
Comments
0 comment