Indian doctor takes on consulate: OCI card

HOUSTON, TX – An Indian American physician Dr. Christo Thomas Philip is filing a fresh petition in the Delhi High Court for his OCI card which was cancelled by the Indian Consulate in Houston, Texas last year, for alleged missionary activities in Bihar leading to unrest and law-and-order problems.

According to a media report, Philip, a medical doctor specializing in emergency medicine, was volunteering with Duncan Hospital at Raxaul in Bihar from January 2014 until April 26, 2016, when he was allegedly “unlawfully deported” from IGI Airport in Delhi.

According to his plea, while his wife and children were allowed to go through immigration, he was put in detention at the airport and then sent back to Istanbul in Turkey through where his flight from Spain had arrived.

In Istanbul, he was kept in a cell with 25 other people for 24 hours, after which he was sent to Spain where again he was escorted out by the police and was not given any reason for his deportation.

His plea states that he was “deprived of his dignity and treated in an inhumane manner at the detention centre in Delhi and Istanbul in gross violation of his fundamental right to life and liberty.”

Philip has also challenged the consulate’s decision as well as the ‘look-out circular’ issued against him, which he was unaware of until 2016 and has sought permission from the court to visit his family in Kerala.

According to reports, Philip was born in Kerala in June 1982 and was granted the OCI status and a lifelong visa in November 2012.

The Delhi High court has issued a notice to the Indian Consulate in Houston and sought a response before the next hearing on July 18.