Lucknow, India - The US has imposed a five-year ban on the well known Shia cleric and senior vice president of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), Maulana Kalbe Sadiq.
The AIMPLB had received the information from the US Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS), an official said.
He said the US had banned Sadiq's entry under a rule that entitled them to declare anyone as persona non grata on grounds of "national security" without assigning any specific reasons.
Sadiq had earlier been deported from Chicago on March 17 even though he had a valid visa. The denial was being attributed to "unsatisfactory replies about funds given to his educational institutions in India".
Sadiq, who heads a large secondary school and a degree college as well as a medical school besides several Islamic seminaries in Uttar Pradesh, had been receiving donations from various US organisations. Questions have been reportedly raised not only about the alleged misuse of such donations but also about the credibility of some of the donors.