KOLKATA: A Bangladeshi undergraduate student of Visva-Bharati University has been ordered by the Union Home Ministry to leave India for 'anti-government activities' and visa violation after she allegedly shared some social media posts regarding protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in the campus last December.
Sources said a notice asking her to leave the country was slapped on Afsara Anika Meem, who is studying Bachelor in Design (B.Des) course at the central university, by the Foreigners' Regional Registration Office (FRRO), Kolkata.
The FRRO, an arm of the Union Home Ministry, asked Meem to leave the country within 15 days of receiving the notice.
It did not, however, give any details of the aanti-India activities" she has participated in.
"Whereas Afsara Anika Meem, holder of Bangladesh passport aIs present in India on the strength of S-1 (student) visa studying a course on Bachelor of Design at Visva-Bharati University, West Bengal. And whereas she is found to have engaged in anti-government activities. And such activity being a breach of her visa, has thus committed visa violation," the notice reads.
"... The foreigner shall not remain in India, shall depart from India within 15 days of receipt of this order," it said, warning that she would be prosecuted under the Foreigners Act, 1946, if the deadline was not adhered to.
A Students Federation of India leader said Meem - who enrolled for the course in 2018 - received the notice dated February 14 on Wednesday and has got in touch with advocate Shamim Ahmed.
The SFI leader said: "It appears the action has been taken against her for uploading some posts on Facebook in December during an anti-CAA protests when BJP MP Swapan Dasgupta had come to the campus to deliver a lecture backing the CAA."
The Left students had then detained Dasgupta, Vice Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty and a handful of BJP leaders in the campus for hours.