Former Maldives Vice-President Ahmed Adeeb was deported to his country late on August 2.
Sources in the Bureau of Immigration said Mr. Adeeb would be handed over from tugboat Virgo 9 to the Maldivian authorities at the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL). Its crew, eight Indonesian nationals and one Indian, underwent medical check-up and given food rations for the journey to the IMBL, an official said.
The Thoothukudi Superintendent of Police and officials from the Coast Guard and Bureau of Immigration oversaw the deportation operation.
Police sources said the tugboat would reach the IMBL in 52 hours.
Mr. Adeeb was held by the Indian authorities near the coast of Thoothukudi in southern Tamil Nadu on Thursday.
He was convicted by a Maldivian court in a plot to assassinate former President Abdulla Yameen, but the country’s Supreme Court had quashed the sentence and ordered a fresh trial.
The police said he was on board the Mongolian-flagged tugboat that set sail from the Maldives on July 27 on its way back to Thoothukudi after delivering bulk cargo.
Published - August 03, 2019 10:25 am IST
