Mumbai: Actor
Imran Khan has written to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) saying the grounds it has cited in its show-cause notice seeking to cancel his Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) status are nebulous and contradictory.
The FRRO on Oct 17 had issued Khan, a US national, a show-cause after he allegedly participated in an anti-CEC stir organised by Tushar Gandhi of Hum Bharat Ke Log on Oct 10 at August Kranti Maidan. An earlier notice issued on Oct 14 asking him to leave India has been challenged in the Bombay High Court and has been posted for hearing on Nov 2.
Khan, in his reply of Oct 22, said a
Mumbai police report cited by the FRRO was incomplete and sought details with evidence to enable him to send an effective response to the notice. He said the grounds in the show-cause notice (SCN) are nebulous and contradictory and sought disclosure of all the material the FRRO is relying on to ensure transparency, fairness and accountability in the decision-making process as required by the Citizenship Act.
The principles of natural justice need compliance, Supreme Court says, and an OCI cardholder needs to be informed of details before resorting to a proposed stripping of such status, he contended.
Khan said that he has not been supplied with the report submitted by Mumbai police or any related material, based on which the show-cause notice was issued. He asked for disclosure of the material on record on the basis of which the FRRO appears to have formed a provisional view that his OCI is liable to be cancelled.
He said the material be presented to him swiftly since the Oct 17 notice gave him only 15 days, or till Nov 1, to respond.
The FRRO appears to have formed a provisional opinion that his OCI is liable to be cancelled, said Khan, and cited Supreme Court judgments. He said he ought to be given all evidence relied on by the police and be allowed to examine it to be able to effectively respond to the SCN and provisional view the FRRO has taken.
The actor said a quoted statement attributed to him in the SCN, “which has also been relied upon by the Mumbai police in its report, is incomplete.” “Mumbai police have not even attempted to record my statement in connection with the registration of FIR,” he added. The police lodged a first information report (FIR) for unlawful assembly against several persons including Khan, alleging his presence along with protestors.
On Oct 14, the FRRO first issued the actor, who holds a US passport, a ‘Leave India notice’ invoking Immigration and Foreigners Act of 2025, for allegedly flouting its provisions.
On Oct 27, the Bombay High Court kept the leave India notice in abeyance after Centre sought a short adjournment to Nov 2 to enable Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to appear in the matter.
