Controversial US historian gets 1-year visa extension

In a reprieve for controversial United States historian Peter Heehs who faced deportation from India, the Union home ministry on Friday extended his visa by one more year with effect from April 15.

Home ministry sources said the formal order on extension of Heehs'a visa was issued.

Heehs, whose visa will expire on April 15, had applied for extension of his stay before the Puducherry Foreigner Regional Registration Officer.

But following complaints of some of the followers of Sri Aurobindo that the American historian has allegedly depicted a distorted picture of the freedom fighter and spiritual leader in a biography, the FRRO had decided not to extend his visa.

When the matter was reported in the media, Home Minister P Chidambaram had announced that he had asked for a suo motu review of the case and he would take an appropriate decision.

The American historian, who is an inmate of Sri Aurobindo ashram, had spent nearly four decades in India while working on a project of digitisation and archival of works of freedom fighter and spiritual leader Sri Aurobindo.

Some historians had protested against the FRRO move not to extend his visa and petitioned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chidambaram for its reconsideration.