A 65-year-old Pakistan national has been arrested on charges of drug-peddling, police said on Sunday (23).
The arrest comes ahead of prime minister Narendra Modi's visit to Rameswaram in the district to inaugurate a memorial for former president APJ Abdul Kalam on July 27.
Mohammed Yunus, from Karachi, was arrested from a lodge in Ervadi, they said. Ervadi is famous for its centuries-old dargah in Ramanathapuram district.
When he was arrested on Saturday (22), he neither had a passport nor a visa. He was carrying Pakistani Rupees 2,500 and INR 3,000, the police said.
During interrogation, it came to light that he had come to the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu illegally by a boat from Sri Lanka.
After travelling to several places, including Pudukottai in Tamil Nadu allegedly in search of a contraband substance, he had come to Ervadi, Q branch district police, which deals with national security.
Two others from Ervadi, who had allegedly promised to get him the drug, have also been arrested, they said.
The Pakistani national was produced before a magistrate at his residence in Paramakudi and was remanded to judicial custody.
He is being taken to the Puzhal Central Prison in Chennai, which has a separate cell to house foreigners.
Damian Talbot