Minister for the Interior, Ambrose Dery, has indicated that embattled Indian businessman, Ashok Kumar Sivaram, was deported based on security reasons.

According to him, the state followed due process in the deportation.

The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) deported Mr Sivaram a few days after the Supreme Court quashed a High Court decision that ordered the restoration of his residence and work permits which had been revoked by the GIS.

An Accra High Court had earlier quashed the deportation of Mr Sivaram by the Interior Minister, Ambrose Dery, after the Ministry had accused him of fraud. Mr Sivaram had been deported on allegations of fraud relating to his acquisition of a fake marriage certificate to enable him stay in Ghana – a claim the Indian denies.

He later petitioned President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, saying he was being harassed by Mr Dery, as well as the Comptroller of the Ghana Immigration Service, Kwame Takyi, and Deputy Comptroller General in charge of Operations, Laud Afrifa.

The Indian businessman accused the three men of conspiring to dispossess him of his own firm, Jai Mai Communications Limited, and hand it over to his business partner, thus, doing everything possible to deport him from Ghana.

But Mr Dery told journalists on Tuesday, 13 March in parliament that: “He has been deported, as simple as that, we will implement the law.

“A number of people have been deported, he is not the only one that has been deported; they were deported according to law. They were deported based on security grounds.”