.Former Maldivian vice-president Ahmed Adeeb Abdul Ghafoor, who illegally came to India, was deported to his country.
According to police sources, the nine crew members of the tugboat — Virgo 9 — were also handed over to the Maldives security personnel along with Abdul Adeeb at the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL).
Maldives police said they have arrested a former vice president who had sought asylum in India after fleeing the Indian Ocean archipelago to avoid questioning over the embezzlement of state funds.
Adeeb arrived at the Indian port city of Thoothukudi in the Tamil Nadu state on Thursday in a tugboat. He sought asylum after authorities in India refused to let him disembark because he did not possess a valid travel document.
Adeeb spent three years in jail on charges of money laundering and trying to kill then-President Abdulla Yameen in 2015. He was transferred to home imprisonment in November last year following Yameen’s shock election defeat to an opposition candidate.
In May, an appeals court overturned the sentences against Adeeb and ordered retrials, citing political interference in the convictions. Prosecutors appealed the ruling in the money-laundering case, and the Supreme Court seized Adeeb’s passport pending a new decision.
He was released from house imprisonment in mid-July.
State prosecutors have also named Adeeb as a witness in a money laundering trial against his former boss, Yameen.
Authorities in the Maldives swiftly moved to arrest Adeeb, and brought him to trial, first on charges of corruption relating to the theft of nearly $80m from state coffers from the lease of islands for tourism in the popular holiday destination, and later on accusations of plotting to kill Yameen.
The following year, he was sentenced to a total of 33 years in jail on corruption and terrorism charges.
Maldivian police said Adeeb should have on Wednesday appeared before investigators in the case relating to the misappropriation of state funds, but failed to show up.
The police said they will take action against anyone who helped Adeeb leave the Maldives.
