St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) CEO Daniel Starks is free to travel inside India, a day after authorities there detained him for having a single round of live ammunition at the Delhi airport.
“Mr. Starks is respectful of the local process and has decided to remain in India until this misunderstanding is completely cleared up,” spokeswoman Marisa Bluestone wrote in an e-mail, noting that there are no formal charges against Starks.
Starks was in India on business, about to take a chartered flight from the Indira Gandhi International Airport to Dharamsala, which happens to be the home of the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama. (Bluestone didn’t respond to a question about whether Starks was going to see his holiness.) Media reports say Starks had a .45 caliber shell in his pants.
Starks was “temporarily detained by airport police on March 16 after a single shell was inadvertently left in an item of his clothing,” Bluestone wrote. Asked why Starks would have live ammo at an airport, Bluestone said he is a “sportsman and has a valid license to possess a firearm in the U.S.” Starks didn’t have a firearm when he was detained, she added.
“He will remain in India while the remaining process associated with this misunderstanding is completed,” Bluestone said, noting that St. Jude has a significant presence in India.
Starks will run the company from its Indian facilities while he remains there.
