SRINAGAR: A Russian woman tourist who sneaked into Jammu and Kashmir illegally to participate in annual Amarnath pilgrimage has been sentenced to one-year imprisonment by a local court here .
An official said that a sub inspector of J&K police, who was posted on duty for protection of Hindu pilgrims to Amarnath Cave Shrine on August 24, this year, had found the Russian woman in mysterious circumstances under Kokran bridge Sonmarg in Ganderbal district, some 5 kilometres ahead of Baltal base camp.
The lady was found in suspicious conditions and upon questioning she disclosed her name as Bonetekia Zoia, a resident of Lenningard in Russia.
On further investigation, the official said that the 44-year-old woman couldnt produce her passport or visa and she had not registered herself with the police anywhere.
We detained her and was charged under the section 14 of the foreigners act and a FIR was lodged against her on August 25, official said.
He further said that the woman told her interrogators that she had sneaked in to India through the Nepal border to participate in the annual Amarnath pilgrimage.
She first said that she had lost the visa, but admitted in the court that she had sneaked in illegally via Nepal without a passport and visa, an official at Ganderbal court
“I am satisfied that the accused has confessed the guilt out of her own voluntariness. There doesnt seem any force or corrosion upon the accused, the court said in its judgment on December 17.
Accordingly the court sentences the convict to one-year in prison, the order further read. The woman is lodged in Central Jail in the summer capital Srinagar.
The court asked the jail superintendent to process the case of her deportation once she serves the sentence.
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