71-year-old Norwegian national told to leave India after participating in anti-CAA protest in Kochi, which 'violated visa norms'

Kochi: A Norwegian woman tourist has been asked to leave the country after she was found to have participated in an anti-CAA protest early this week, violating visa norms, a senior official said on Friday. “Our enquiry found that she has violated visa norms and so she was asked to go back,” Anoop Krishnan, an officer in the Foreigners Regional Registration Office told PTI. The FRRO, under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, had said that it was probing the matter after it came to know through social media that the Norwegian woman allegedly participated in the protest against Citizenship Amendment Act on 23 December. Janne-Mette Johansson said in a Facebook post that she has been directed by the Bureau of Immigration authorities, who again came to her hotel, to leave the country at once.

“I was told to leave the country at once, or legal action would be taken,” she said. The 71-year-old woman, who is settled in Sweden, said when she sought an explanation or something in writing, the authorities informed her that she would not get anything in writing. She said her friend was arranging a flight ticket to Dubai, from where she would catch a flight back home to Sweden. “The officer from the Bureau is not leaving me before he can see that I have a flight ticket,” she said. The woman, in India on a tourist visa, had come under the scanner of Bureau of Immigration authorities over her participation in an anti-CAA protest in the city on 23 December 23. Johansson had reportedly said in a Facebook post that she had participated in the “Peoples Long March” against the CAA.