The Supreme Court on Friday asked the government to examine a request for “political asylum” by an American, Jeff Knaebel, a Vietnam war veteran and staunch Mahatma Gandhi follower, who has been living in Shimla for 15 years.
Mr Knaebel, 72, moved the court saying he feared deportation to the US to face “treason” charges for “renouncing” American citizenship and destroying his US passport and other documents at Gandhi Samadhi here last year, when he pledged never to return to the country of his birth.
A two-member bench of Justices P. Sathasivam and H.L. Dattu directed attorney-general Goolam E. Vahavati to ask the government to examine Mr Knaebel’s request after he, arguing his case in person, said he did not want to return to the US and wanted to live in the land of Gandhi.
Mr Knaebel, who claimed he had fought in the Vietnam war between 1964 and 1967, attacked US government policies saying these were based on a “philosophy of war and destruction” which would one day “destroy” the earth.