US citizen and journalist associated with American news and entertainment company Vice Angad Singh was allegedly deported from the Delhi airport Wednesday night, claimed his family members in Punjab Thursday.
According to his family, Angad Singh landed at the Delhi airport at 8:30 pm Wednesday and was deported to the US within three hours. They claimed that Singh had come to India for a family reunion and was sent back because of his work.
“Angad Singh covers South Asia. He had made a documentary on the Shaheen Bagh protest. The Government must be upset due to that documentary. His request for a visa as a journalist to make a documentary on Dalits in India was rejected recently. Now, he was coming for a family reunion and was on a personal visit. But he was sent back from the Delhi airport,” said a family member.
His mother Gurmeet Kaur, a writer, also talked about her son’s deportation in a Facebook post.
“Today, my son an American citizen who travelled 18 hours to Delhi to visit us in Punjab, was deported. He was put on the next flight back to New York. They didn’t give a reason. But we know it is his award-winning journalism that scares them. It is the stories he did and the stories he is capable of. It is the love for his motherland that they can’t stand.”
“He is 6’5” tall. His back hurts after long flights in such small spaces. He must be wanting to lay down. I wish you Chardi Kala, my boy. It’s not easy to be a Sikh, a Gursikh on top, a journalist, a warrior of truth and justice. Speaking the truth has a price. We must pay for it.”