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CHENNAI, INDIA, August 22, 2003: A self-styled Swedish holy man who built an ashram in India has been arrested and faces deportation. Harold Davidson, 45, built the ashram illegally on a two-acre plot in Mallayapuram, in southern Tamil Nadu state. It has a massive statue of Garuda, the holy eagle that is associated with the Lord Vishnu. Davidson came to India on six-month tourist visa. He extended it by two years but refused to leave when it expired. He appealed a court decision in 1994, and after eight years of wrangling lost the appeal. Police said Davidson then went into hiding. He was arrested on August 21, 2003 in the southern town of Kanchipuram. Villagers remember Davidson’s arrival — a white man sitting on the top of a rock seemingly unmindful of the scorching heat. He told them he had come to their village to serve them. Police said he was not engaged in any illegal activity, but was resented by some villagers. Davidson opposed the use of noisy public address systems and lodged more than 200 complaints with police over noise pollution.

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