It looks as if the controversies surrounding Israeli writer Susan Nathan are not going to die out. The Kerala government on Friday submitted before the Kerala high court that she has close connections with some extremists in the state and should be deported.
Advocate-general K.P. Dandapani made the submission in response to the 62-year-old British-born Jewish writer Nathan’s appeal challenging the deportation notice issued to her. The AG said her activities in the state were suspicious and she was currently staying in an apartment rented out with the help of one Aboobaker, former vice-president of the banned Students Islamic Movement in India (Simi).
The submission said she had close connections with activists of Simi and the National Democratic Front. However, counsel for the petitioner argued that she was on a palliative care mission to help old citizens in the state.
It was also pointed out that the publisher of her next book had played a role in the hand-chopping case of professor T.J. Joseph of the Newmans College Thodupuzha in 2010.
A bench comprising acting Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice P.R. Ramachandra Menon asked her counsel to furnish details of the palliative care activities, adding that there was nothing on record to show that she was engaged in the service sector.