No visa, no passport: Ukrainian trekking in Uttarakhand village arrested

A wave of sensation spread across Uttarakhand's Bageshwar district after an injured foreign national was found under mysterious circumstances in Doula, the last village of the border region. The man did not have any official documents with him and was therefore arrested by security personnel.

The incident came to light after local villagers discovered the youth in distress and immediately rushed him to a nearby hospital for primary medical treatment. According to the attending doctors, the individual sustained minor injuries to his hand and thigh.

Upon receiving information about the foreigner, the police and intelligence agencies initiated an interrogation at the medical facility. The youth identified himself as 36-year-old Maksim Starchenko, a resident of Kharkiv in war-torn Ukraine.

During the police questioning, the man claimed that he had fled the ongoing conflict in Ukraine to seek refuge in India. He further stated that he had arrived in the remote region for trekking purposes but lost his way along the mountain trails, eventually wandering into Doula village.

However, security agencies found his claims highly suspicious as he failed to produce a passport, a visa, or any other valid travel document to justify his stay in the country. The mystery deepened when the youth failed to provide even a contact number for his family members.

Furthermore, official verifications revealed that no Form-C, which is mandatory for foreign nationals staying in India, had been submitted under his name with the local authorities.

As a result of his failure to produce valid identification and his unauthorised presence in a sensitive border zone, the police took immediate action. A formal case was registered under the relevant sections of the Foreigners Act, and the Ukrainian national was placed under arrest. Currently, district police, alongside central intelligence agencies, are conducting a thorough investigation to ascertain how he illegally entered India and reached this prohibited frontier region.

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With inputs from Jagdish Chandra Pandey