Ujjwala Raut

Panaji, Aug. 20 (PTI): Model Ujjwala Raut’s estranged British husband was today asked to leave India within 72 hours in a deportation order that he alleged was meant to “victimise” him.

“I am being victimised by my wife and the Indian government which has revoked my PIO card without following the due process,” Craig Maxwell Sterry said after receiving the deportation order at the office of the superintendent of police here.

Craig, a model-turned-entrepreneur, had gone missing since August 10 when he had submitted his Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card. The deportation order follows the Union home ministry’s move to revoke his PIO status on the ground of “public interest”.

Craig, whose five-year-old marriage with the model is on the rocks, filed a plea before the Goa bench of Bombay High Court saying the revocation was mala fide and didn’t involve public interest.

But the court declined to give him any immediate relief and said it would hear his plea only on August 28.

The divorce petition of the couple, who have a three-year-old daughter, is pending before a family court in Mumbai, where Ujjwala comes from.

Today, Craig admitted he had been on the run for the past 10 days, but said he did so to stay on in India and fight for his daughter’s custody.

“I was on the run as I knew that the police would deport me. I want to fight the case in Indian courts and stay back as I have to take the custody of my daughter. I have been a good father and I will try to get the custody of my daughter,” he added.

Questioning the deportation order, Craig said he had no criminal proceedings against him in India or anywhere in the world. Ujjwala, who won the Miss India title in 1996 and has walked the ramp for several iconic designers in shows at home and abroad, couldn’t be contacted for comment.

A senior Goa police officer said both Craig and Ujjwala had lodged complaints of misbehaviour 10 days ago. “We had received complaints from the husband and wife,” the officer added.

Craig’s PIO status was cancelled late last month, after which he appeared before the police. “He came to meet me with photocopies of his PIO card and passport. When I insisted on the original documents, he went back promising to return in two hours but never turned up,” superintendent of police (foreigners’ branch) Tony Fernandes had said earlier in the day before Craig came to take the order.

Later, on August 10, Craig was found at his residence at Aldonha and was brought to the police station.