Eric Dillon Reed (left) and Bradley Alan Sander at the Namchi court on Friday

Gangtok, April 19: The two American professional paragliders arrested for illegal entry into Sikkim were released by a court on Saturday after it was convinced that there was no deliberate intent to violate the law.

According to a defence lawyer, the court of the chief judicial magistrate in Namchi dropped the charges against Eric Dillon Reed and Bradley Alan Sander after being convinced that a “miscommunication” had led to their illegal entry. Reed and Sander left Sikkim on Sunday.

The CJM’s court in Namchi in South district is also in charge of West district, where they were arrested on March 16.

Even in the chargesheet filed by police in court it was clear that there was a miscommunication between the organisers of a rhododendron festival — to which the two Americans had been invited — and the cops in Uttarey, the lawyer said. This eventually led to the two Americans entering Sikkim without either an inner line permit (ILP) mandatory for foreigners visiting the state or immigration clearance.

According to the chargesheet, the Americans had first contacted the Paragliding Association of India for legal assistance for crossing into Sikkim from Nepal. The association, in turn, got in touch with a local contact, Ganesh Kumar Rai, one of the organisers of the rhododendron festival.

Rai had called up the officer in charge of Uttarey police station, Sar Man Chhetri, informing him that Reed and Sander wanted to come to Uttarey from Changthapu in Nepal through the Indo-Nepal border.

The chargesheet mentions that as the police officer was travelling in a car he could not hear Rai clearly and mistakenly heard that two Nepali nationals wanted to enter Sikkim and gave the go-ahead provided they had permission from the Nepal police.

The chargesheet states: “Hence, he (Chhetri) told Ganesh Kumar Rai that they can come to Sikkim if the Nepal police permits them and also told him to obtain a valid permit from the authority of the government of Sikkim as well.”

Accordingly, the association instructed the Americans to enter Sikkim, stating that they would be provided the ILP once they arrived.

The chargesheet said the Americans then obtained police permission from Changthapu in Nepal and arrived in Sikkim on March 14. They met Rai and his companion who took the duo to the Uttarey police station to complete the legal formalities. They were asked by the police to get their ILPs from the tourism department.

However, when they got the permits, it said they had come from Siliguri and entered Sikkim through Rangpo which was not true. So they were arrested two days later.

“Since the chargesheet makes it clear that there was no malafide intention on the part of the Americans and this was clearly a case of miscommunication, the charges were dropped and the Americans allowed to leave,” the defence lawyer said.

“We argued that the two Americans had tried every legal measure available before entering Sikkim and the whole thing had happened because of a miscommunication,” the lawyer said.

“The investigations also could not establish any intend (sic) to cause harm to the public and any person by entering into India/Sikkim. Hence the issue of Inner Line Permit is just a procedural lapse. It was to be obtained before entering into Sikkim,” the chargesheet said.