The family of an American journalist of Indian-origin has alleged that he was deported to New York soon after he landed in Delhi on Wednesday night.
Angad Singh, who produces documentaries for Vice News, was on a personal visit to India, his mother Gurmeet Kaur said.
Mr Singh, who has made documentaries on India’s Covid crisis and farmers’ protests, was not given any reason why he was being sent back.
The Indian government is yet to comment on the issue.
“Angad sent a message after he landed at the international airport in Delhi,” Ms Kaur told BBC Punjabi’s Arshdeep Kaur.
“Around 15 minutes later, he sent another message that immigration officials had confiscated his passport. Then, he was deported,” she added.
Mr Singh’s family says that his work focuses on people’s movements in various countries and that he has made documentaries on protests in many countries, including in Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Myanmar, India and Pakistan.
In India, he covered protests by farmers against agricultural laws – which were later repealed by the government – and made a documentary on Shaheen Bagh, an iconic protest site in Delhi that became a symbol of the widespread agitation against the country’s controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
His coverage of the devastating second wave of Covid-19 in India had earned him an Emmy nomination.
“It is his award-winning journalism that scares them,” his mother wrote on Facebook after he was sent back.
“It is the stories that he did and the stories he is capable of. It is the love for his Motherland that they cannot stand. It’s not easy to be a Sikh… a journalist, a warrior of truth and justice,” she added.
