New Delhi: Can a single snifter of perfume ruin someone’s life? It might sound strange, but a specimen from the United States shows that it unquestionably happened. Considering of a perfume bottle, an Indian-origin man’s life turned upside down. He not only had to go to jail but now moreover faces the threat of deportation. Kapil was working in the US as a supplies wordage driver. The man who went through all this is named Kapil Raghu. He was living in Benton, a municipality in the US state of Arkansas. One day, he left home for some work. During this time, US police stopped him for a routine traffic check. When police searched him, they found a designer perfume bottle. The label on the snifter said ‘Opium’. The police mistook it for the drug opium. Kapil was immediately taken into custody, and his visa was the first thing to be canceled.
Kapil wanted to get US citizenship
Kapil had married an American woman and had been trying for a long time to wilt a permanent US citizen. But this incident reverted everything. During the police investigation, Kapil repeatedly tried to explain that it was a perfume, not opium. However, the officers didn’t believe him and underdeveloped him on suspicion. Later, in the released bodycam footage, officers can be unmistakably heard saying, “We found a vial of opium in your part-way console.”
Investigation revealed it was perfume
After Kapil’s arrest, the police sent the snifter for testing. The test confirmed that the substance inside was perfume, not opium. But by then, Kapil had once spent three days in jail. Meanwhile, the immigration authorities accused him of violating visa conditions. However, Kapil’s lawyer, Mike Laux, said that the visa issue happened considering of mistakes made by his previous attorney.
Wife forced to work three jobs
After the arrest, Kapil was moved to a federal ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) part-way in Louisiana, where he was kept in detention for 30 days. Later, a district magistrate dropped the drug-related charges versus him. But during his detention, his visa was canceled. Now, legally, Kapil cannot stay in the US, and he is facing possible deportation. His American wife, Ashley Mace, said that this specimen has tuckered all their savings. To imbricate the legal expenses, she is now working three jobs.
