Chinese detained in Alipurduar: detained with valid passport and expired visa by SSB at Jaigaon

SNS, ALIPURDUAR, 24 JUNE 21 : The Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) today detained a Chinese national who was trying to enter Bhutan from the Indian side at Jaigaon in Alipurduar district.

Nil Wai Lin, 58, a resident of Hong Kong, had reported to the SSB at the Jaigaon gate on the India-Bhutan border, when the SSB's 53 Battalion deployed there found that her visa to India had already expired, though she held a valid passport, sources said.

"The Jaigaon immigration centre along the Indo-Bhutan border in Alipurduar district has sent her to the Foreign National Registration Office in Siliguri, to see if her visa can be extended and if she is to be penalized," a source in Jaigaon said.

"Officials of the special investigation bureau escorted her to Siliguri yesterday night," the source added.

According to sources, the woman had landed in New Delhi on 3 February this year, and she visited a Tibetan monastery in Varanasi where she learned meditation.

"It is learnt that she failed to return to China because of the Covid restrictions and lockdown. She reached Siliguri on the Rajdhani Express train on 20 June and stayed in a hotel there," sources said.

"We sent the woman to the Jaigaon Immigration Centre for verification of documents. The immigration department may be able to give more details," said the commandant of the 53 Battalion of the SSB, Manohar Lal.

Police in Jaigaon did not want to comment on the matter.