American asked to leave over jail visit

Deep Gazmer, TNN | Jul 18, 2013,Darjeeling: The Darjeeling police on Wednesday told a US national of Indian origin to return to her country. 

The woman, who was in India on a tourist visa, allegedly visited a man accused of being an ISI agent in the local jail. 

Natasha Singh, 40, who lives in Oakland, California, came to India a month ago. She landed in Darjeeling a week back and four days ago, paid a visit to Mesho Souria - one of the five ISI agents arrested by Darjeeling police in May. 

"Singh violated the visa conditions on two counts. Firstly, a tourist visa does not permit foreigners to work in India. She was working with an NGO. Secondly, she visited a high-profile accused in jail. 

In both cases, she notified her presence to the Foreigners' Registration Office," said Darjeeling SP Kunal Agarwal. 

According to the police, Singh got in touch with Souria's sister, who works for an NGO in Panighatta, for which Singh had also started working. She was staying in a hotel in the town.

"On Wednesday, we issued the 'quit India' notice to Singh, who has flown off to Delhi to board her flight back to the US," said the SP. 

Souria was the second agent to be arrested along with Maghan Bahadur Singh from Kurseong, apart from three linkmen, Dhan Bahadur Pradhan, Gopal Kahti and Mani Kumar Biswakarma.

The police acted on information provided by B K Sinha, another ISI agent arrested in Jaipur. Police said Souria was involved in smuggling before turning an ISI agent. 

He is accused of supplying sensitive information to Nepal-based ISI agents for three years. But how did Singh manage to meet the accused in jail? 

"We don't have full information yet, but Singh probably posed as a relative. Singh said she visited Souria as a 'goodwill gesture'," said the SP.