US evangelist arrested in Kochi-The pioneer—16.10.11

LEE'S COUNSEL SAID HE HAD NOT VIOLATED ANY INDIAN LAW AND THAT THE CHARGES IMPOSED ON HIM WERE NOT LEGALLY MAINTAINABLE The Kerala Police arrested US evangelist William Lee from Kochi late Friday night for indulging in religious preaching in violation of visa norms. Lee, who had come to India on a tourist visa, had gone underground on Wednesday night after the police tried to nab him from the venue of an evangelical programme in Kochi. Lee was arrested from a five-star hotel of Kochi over 48 hours after he went missing from the venue of Musical Splash 2011, a religious propagation programme organised as a musical event at Jawaharlal International Stadium in Kaloor, Kochi. He vanished from the spot, when the police reached the venue to ask him to leave the country immediately. The Chief Judicial Magistrate Court at Kochi, where Lee was produced on Saturday, sent him to judicial custody till Tuesday. The police said in the chargesheet that the pastor had violated visa norms and that he had to be deported. Applying for bail, Lee’s counsel said that he had not violated any Indian law and that the charges imposed on him were not legally maintainable. Lee, who had gone missing along with evangelist-musician Ron Kenoly and a woman associate, was blacklisted after Wednesday’ s incident. The police had issued lookout notices for his detention to all airports in the country. The police also had been searching for the leaders of Faith Leaders Church of God, who had brought them to Kerala and had organised the event.