Imran Khan posted a photo from the back of a police van. Victory sign up, half a grin, caption: “Apparently I’m going for a drive.” That was Saturday. Five days later, the drive has turned into a deadline. The Foreigners Regional Registration Office in Mumbai has asked the actor to leave India by October 28, after he joined the October 10 protest at August Kranti Maidan demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, the Indian Express and The Hindu reported on Thursday.
The Imran Khan leave India notice makes him the highest-profile person caught in the undertow of the anti-SIR agitation, which has been running for five days in Delhi and Mumbai. And it is the first time in recent memory that a Bollywood actor has faced a formal exit order for showing up at a protest.
What the FRRO notice actually says
Khan, 43, is a United States citizen and holds an Overseas Citizen of India card. That card gives him a lifelong visa, but not citizenship: he cannot vote or contest elections, and he remains subject to India’s immigration laws.
The FRRO says his presence at the August Kranti Maidan morcha violated the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, which replaced the Foreigners Act of 1946. Under Section 7 of the new law, the Centre holds broad powers to restrict a foreign national’s presence in India, and under Section 29 it can direct the removal of a foreigner for contravening the Act. Police detained Khan at the protest on Saturday; Mumbai Police confirmed the notice to The Hindu on Thursday.
Here is where the story gets murky. The Indian Express reports that BJP leader Kirit Somaiya filed a complaint at Gamdevi police station alleging Khan, as a US citizen, had breached the Act, and that the complaint was forwarded to the FRRO, which then issued the notice. The Hindu, meanwhile, quotes police saying the action was initiated suo motu and denying any private complaint was behind it. Both versions cannot be true, and the contradiction sits at the heart of whatever happens next.
Why the Imran Khan leave India notice is legally tricky
OCI cards were introduced in 2005 as a kind of homecoming for the Indian diaspora: stay as long as you like, no annual paperwork. The fine print is doing the work here. OCI rules do not expressly forbid attending a public protest, but Article 19’s guarantees of free speech and peaceful assembly belong to citizens alone. A complaint or an alleged visa violation does not by itself establish an offence or justify deportation, as the Indian Express’s legal analysis notes.
That is the crack Khan’s legal team will push into. His lawyers, Zulfiquar Memon, Parvez Memon and Chirag Naik of MZM Legal, told the Express they are filing a petition against the FRRO notice in the Bombay High Court, likely to be registered by Friday, seeking an urgent hearing before a division bench led by Chief Justice Mahesh Chandra Tripathi. If the court stays the notice, the October 28 deadline evaporates. If it does not, a working actor with a Mumbai life is on a plane within thirteen days.
Kirit Somaiya, for his part, is not pretending this is routine paperwork. He told the Indian Express that Khan’s deportation should “set an example for all other foreigners and funders whose objective is to generate unrest and anarchy in India,” alleging foreign money behind the protests without naming anyone or citing evidence.
From protest to High Court in five days
Saturday: detention at August Kranti Maidan. Sunday through Wednesday: the agitation spreads, Delhi sees five straight days of demonstrations, and the same voter-roll fight Rahul Gandhi took to the Supreme Court gathers steam. Thursday: the FRRO notice, confirmed by Mumbai Police. Friday: Khan’s lawyers expect to register the High Court petition.
The speed is the story. India has seen foreigners drift into political controversies before and get scolded, fined or quietly ignored. Reaching for the exit door within five days of a protest is rare, and it tells you how seriously the state is taking this agitation.
It also tells you something about the moment Bollywood finds itself in. Actors joined the protests in small numbers. Most went home. One did not go home quietly enough, and the state noticed. The courts will now decide whether showing up at a rally with a placard is a deportable offence.
Watch Friday’s registration. If the High Court takes it up urgently, the Imran Khan leave India fight becomes a test case for every OCI cardholder who has ever assumed a lifelong visa means a full life in India. If the court refuses, October 28 is not a date on a calendar anymore. It is a boarding pass.