Roman Vorobiev, representative of the General Consulate of the Russian Federation in Mumbai, said to “Interfax” news agency the tourist was arrested last Thursday at the Dabolim airport while attempting to board the plane to Moscow with expired Indian visa.
According to the police, Alina and her friend arrived in Goa on December 25. They were granted visa on arrival, also known as group landing permit, valid for 10 days.
Despite having a return ticket for the first week of January, Alina didn’t return to Russia as her friend went missing and is yet to be traced.
According to Mr. Vorobiev, Alina Andreeva could be sentenced to the one year long imprisonment for the violation of this kind. But thanks to the efforts of Vikram Varma, Russian consulate counsel and a well-known lawyer in the state, the verdict was reduced to a fine of Rs. 5,000.
After paying the fine, Alina was released from prison and taken to the Foreigners registration office (FRO) where she had to spend two more nights before she was deported to Russia.
Vikram Varma said that to the best of his knowledge “the FRO does not have the space and the facilities to accommodate foreigners until compliance of deportation orders.”
