Chennai: A Polish national landed near Point Calimere on the Tamil Nadu coast in a rubber dinghy from Sri Lanka on Sunday and has since been arrested. Though after landing he had abandoned the dinghy and gone into hiding, police arrested him following tip-off from local people. The foreigner was identified as Matuszewski Wladyslaw Franciszek, aged 40.
He claimed to police that he had gone to Sri Lanka as a tourist in 2019 and subsequently overstayed there. Following the economic crisis and political upheaval, he illegally entered India via the sea route with the intent to go back to his country.
According to police, Franciszek had entered a nearby reserve forest to escape being detected. However, in the evening he came out of the forest cover when local fishermen spotted him and alerted the police. On his arrest, he told the police he had had intended to look for a bank ATM to withdraw cash and head to Chennai.
Officers of the Navy and Coast Guard also arrived at the spot where he had landed in a dinghy and conducted an inspection along with senior Tamil Nadu police officers including the Deputy Inspector General of Police (Thanjavur Range) A Kayalvizhi.
The police have also informed the Embassy of Poland about the arrest of its national.
Matuszewski has been detained under provisions of the Foreigners Act and the Passports Act.
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