US national Katie lauren Stephenson (25) was asked by the police on Thursday to leave Balangir immediately as she violated the tourist visa condition.
Stephenson, along with Pratibha Demello and two other local persons on Wednesday visited various parts of Balangir’s Khaprakhol block, which is known as the most Maoist-affected area of the district. While they were visiting a Primary Health Centre (PHC) at Jamgaon on Thursday, they were asked to report to the SP’s Office.
Balangir SP Deepak Kumar told this correspondent, “On inquiry, we found that Katie Stephenson has a tourist visa, on which no research work is supposed to be undertaken. She could not explain satisfactorily why she did not report their visit to police earlier and why she preferred to visit a Maoist hotbedIJ We are going to send a detailed report to the Intelligence Department for further action.”
