Maldives’ former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb was not deported from India, rather he was sent away after rejecting entry and asylum plea.

News broke of Adeeb being deported from India early Saturday morning.

However, a government official is to have told India’s ‘WION’ that reports of him being deported are “incorrect” as he was not even permitted to enter India.

He was denied entry “since he was not entering through a designated point and did not possess a valid document," Indian government sources informed WION.

WION reports that Adeeb “was never put in detention or arrested by Indian authorities since he never stepped on Indian soil.”

In addition, WION cited the Tuticorin police department saying that he “was escorted back by the Coast Guard in the same vessel Virgo 9, the tug boat, in which he entered Indian waters.”

Reports of Adeeb being detained in India in an attempt to flee from authorities emerged on Thursday; he is to have traveled there on a tugboat ‘Virgo 9’.

While Virgo 9 reached Tuticorin Old Port in Tamil Nadu on Thursday morning, it was denied permission to dock after authorities learnt of Adeeb’s presence on the boat.

Adeeb, along with the nine crew members on-board the tugboat, have been handed over to Maldivian security, as they continue to investigate how he left the country.

India’s decision comes after an asylum plea from from the former VP, claiming threats to his life.

In a statement issued on Friday, Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers- the firm representing Adeeb- said that “there is a very real and demonstrable risk that his fundamental rights and freedoms will be violated” if he is returned home and that he “is at risk of becoming a victim of a politically motivate justice system.”

It also reminded the Indian government of its “obligations under international law, adding that it does not matter that the former VP had entered India illegally given that “once a claim of asylum is made, the appropriate authorities are required to consider it" ; India is yet to enact a uniform law that addresses the issue of asylum and is not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol.

‘New Indian Express’ reports that Indian officials had initiated an inquiry following Adeeb’s asylum plea, but noted that it had led to the discovery that the former vice president's entry was “not through a designated point and he did not possess valid travel documents.”

Adeeb was impeached as VP in November 2015, after being arrested in connection with a blast aboard the presidential speedboat that the government says was an assassination attempt on then President Abdulla Yameen.

While Yameen has since been charged with money laundering, the state has named his former deputy as a witness in the case. The hearings in the case are being broadcast live, and Adeeb is expected to testify at the hearing set for Sunday.

Adeeb’s flee attempt came as a surprise to many, given that he recently tweeted that he “will face [the] investigations and never run away from responsibilities.”

Prosecutor General Aishath Bisham blamed the Supreme Court for his near successful attempt, and told RaajjeMV that they had sought an arrest warrant for Adeeb from the court.

Maldives Immigration also denied reports that Adeeb had a valid travel document, adding that he as an “international travel ban.” The Supreme Court had last month ordered authorities to withhold his passport.

While Adeeb was sentenced to 33 years in prison over various charges including terrorism and corruption, his sentences were overturned this year. However, the court had ordered retrials in two cases, and the state has appealed one of the the verdicts which led to the confiscation of his passport.