The government has revoked the visa of Jakob Lindenthal, the German exchange student at IIT-Madras who was asked to leave the country two months ago after he had participated in protests against the new citizenship law, reports Indian Express.
Speaking to the media, German student Jakob Lindenthal confirmed that the Indian Embassy in Germany informed him on February 8 that his visa has been cancelled. “I wasn’t given any reason for the decision,” he said.
In a clampdown against the foreigners who joined the anti-CAA protests without any reason and fueled anarchy in the country, the Indian government authorities in December last year had sent back German student Jakob Lindenthal to his native country for undermining the law and order by participating in the anti-CAA protests.
Jakob Lindenthal was asked to leave the country in the last week of December after he was spotted at multiple rallies in Chennai against the CAA. On December 23, he was called to the Immigration Department to discuss his Residence Permit.
Jakob Lindenthal is a student of Technical University-Dresden (TUD), had been studying in the Physics department of IIT-Madras as part of a collaboration between the two institutions. He was seen holding a placard equating the CAA Bill with the persecution of Jews during 1933-1945 in Germany. Following his act, the Indian authorities had initiated his deportation back to his country.
Confirming the cancellation of Jakob’s visa, Kim Magister, Head of Press Office and Public Relations at TUD, said in an email, “Mr Lindenthal’s visa has indeed now been officially cancelled, meaning that he is no longer able to travel to India to continue his student exchange. However, he was able to successfully complete one semester at the IIT Madras. For this period, he will receive a Transcript of Records from our partner university.”
In a similar incident, a Bangladeshi national residing in India has been asked to leave the country after she was caught participating in anti-CAA protests and posting anti-CAA messages and posters on social media. 20-year-old student Afsara Meem, who is a first-year student of Visva-Bharati University was asked to leave India withnin 15 days.
Afsara, the undergraduate student had uploaded pictures of the Anti-CAA protests on her Facebook handle. The Bangladeshi student who had come to India in 2018 from Bangladesh’s Kustia is pursuing a Bachelor of Design degree at the department of fine arts.
The Foreigners’ Regional Registration Office of Kolkata had reportedly issued a ‘leave-India’ letter to the Bangladeshi woman on 14 February. Meanwhile, Afsara had claimed that she did not participate in the protests but merely uploaded pictures related Anti-CAA protests on the Social media ‘out of curiosity’.
