Chennai, Aug 3 (IANS): Former vice president of Maldives Ahmed Adeeb Abdul Ghafoor, who secretly fled the Maldives on a tug boat to India, has been sent back home, Thoothukudi police said on Saturday.

According to police, Adeeb was sent back in the tug boat Virgo 9 at 11.30 p.m. on Friday.

Adeeb was detained near the coast of Thoothukudi on Thursday while he was reportedly trying to enter India illegally as a crew member of a tug boat.

The Coast Guard intercepted the tug boat acting on a tip-off that it had gone to the Maldives with nine people, but was returning with 10 passengers. The boat was on its way to the Tuticorin port.

Interrogation by Coast Guard and Immigration officials revealed that the additional person was the former Vice President of Maldives.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said Adeeb was "not permitted entry into the country since he did not possess valid documents".

Adeeb, was convicted by a Maldivian court in a plot to assassinate former President Abdulla Yameen, but the country's Supreme Court had quashed the sentence and ordered a fresh trial.