On Friday night, a content creator from New Zealand, who goes by the name Karl Rock on all his social media channels, posted a video on the internet seeking help from his followers to unite him with his Indian-origin wife Manisha Malik, who is currently in New Delhi. He described how he hasn’t been able to see his wife for the last eight months, even when she was down with coronavirus for the second time this year because his visa was blocked by the Indian government and he was barred from entering the country. Karl is currently in New Zealand.

Rock said he learnt about this development only upon leaving for India from Dubai in October 2020 and is clueless why this action was taken against him particularly. He also appealed to people on the Internet to sign his petition on change.org.

While there was initial speculation that the YouTuber may have been blacklisted for participating in anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protests, it is unclear if that was the reason.

On Saturday, he and his wife moved a petition before the Delhi high court to get him removed from the blacklist.

After his appeal video travelled the Internet for almost a day, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which oversees visa policies, told the Times of India that Karl Edward Rice (which is his name in official documents) violated the terms and conditions of his tourist visa by doing “business activities” in the country. He has been restricted from entering India till next year, the newspaper reported