Word & Way | Morning Star News correspondent | Nov. 5, 2019
NEW DELHI, India (BP) — A U.S. pastor attending a Sunday School conference in India could be stranded there until December after being arrested for failing to report money he was carrying.
Bryan Nerren, 58, was traveling to Sikkim state in northeastern India with two other U.S. pastors on Oct. 5 when they were detained at the Bagdogra airport, the closest airport to Sikkim. While the other two pastors were let go, Nerren was arrested when authorities alleged that he had violated the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and the Customs Act by not declaring the cash that he was carrying for his trip and for conferences in India and Nepal.
“They showed me an email from the Delhi office directing them to detain and arrest me for breaking the law,” Nerren told Morning Star News. “I told them repeatedly that no one has told me that I need to declare this money. Not even the customs people [in Delhi] who interrogated us.
“I also told them that so far I have not stepped out of the airport onto Indian soil, and that I can go back to Delhi, fill in the necessary forms and come back to Bagdogra, or I can fill the forms right here, but they did not listen,” Nerren told Morning Star. “They did not even deport me, but arrested me.”