After spending a week in the Brixton prison in south-west London on alleged visa violations, Senthil Kumar, CEO of Dutch subsidiary of Indian software firm i-flex solutions Ltd, was on Wednesday released on bail but was asked to surrender his passport by a local court in London.
Magistrate Workman, while releasing him on bail of £20,000, asked Kumar to surrender his passport and not to leave the city and fixed the case for next hearing on April 11.
"I thank the Indian government and the diplomatic officers of the Indian High Commission in London for their support. It is a legal process, we have to go through it," a much-relieved Kumar said soon after the magistrate's order.
"The authorities in the prison were very cordial. Every one was supportive," he added.
Kumar was arrested here last Wednesday following an Interpol alert over a complaint filed against his company in Amsterdam that 14 of its employees were working in the Netherlands without work permits.
Kumar's counsel, Barrister Hugo Keith told Judge Workman at the Bow Street Magistrate's Court that Kumar took over as director of the Dutch company after the visa applications for the 14 employees were made.
"A family man and a senior officer of the company, Senthil Kumar is prepared to provide a security deposit of up to £1 million with five sureties," he said.
India had strongly condemned the Dutch government's action of issuing the Interpol arrest warrant against Kumar and subsequently asking 12 Indian software experts to leave the country, terming it as a neo-non tariff barrier which comes in the way of free flow of services of professionals in violation of the WTO norms.
A spokesman of the external affairs ministry in Delhi had said that the Dutch government's action against Kumar and 12 employees of the Mumbai-based i-flex solutions was 'grossly unfortunate, objectionable and patently unwarranted,' adding that New Delhi had taken up the matter with the Netherlands at the highest level.
In London, two senior officials of the Indian High Commission had visited Kumar in the notorious Brixton prison and offered consular assistance.
While sympathising with Kumar's case, the British foreign office spokesman had said that they could do very little in the matter as it was a judicial process. Once the complaint was forwarded to British police they were bound under European Union arrangements to arrest him though they have nothing against him.
Kumar has been accused of involvement in providing false references for a number of company employees to come to work in Holland. The i-flex office in Mumbai has said that the visa documents of all employees in Amsterdam were in order.
It said the employees were on business visa while their work permits were being processed.
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