German national deported: 'No breach in security', says Chidambaram

New Delhi, Feb 29 (ANI): A day after a German national was deported for anti-national activities in the form of helping raise funds to part-finance ongoing protests against the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday rubbished reports that it was a breach in security, and said that the man had come to India as a tourist.

"There is no breach. He was not a terrorist. He was not coming here to indulge in terrorist activity. He came as a tourist and he associated himself with protest movements. But despite a look out notice, he was able to come through immigration because one key piece of information was missing," said Chidambaram, when asked whether there was a breach in security as the German national had managed to sneak in despite a lookout notice.

So, we have asked the Bureau of Immigration to look into why that piece of information was missing and to fix responsibility for that. But soon after he entered, we found that he had entered, we had located him, and we have asked him to leave the country," he added.

The Tamil Nadu Government had earlier on Tuesday deported a German national, Sonnteg Reiner Hermann, on charges of supporting and funding the anti-nuclear power plant protests in Kundankulam.

The development came a few days after Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, in an interview to the 'Science' journal, blamed American NGOs for fuelling protests at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu.

Established in a joint collaboration between India and Russia, the Kudankulam nuclear power project envisaged to build two 1,000 MW VVER type reactors by the end of December last year.

In the wake of the Fukushima incident, several nuclear projects across India, such as the one at Jaitapur in Maharashtra, have run into rough weather as protesting locals and activists argue that such plants could adversely affect the environment. (ANI)