A Dali crew member went home to India. Then the US wouldn’t let him back in.

One arm of the federal government demands that he stay in the U.S. Another, apparently, won’t let him back into the country.

The only Dali crew member facing federal charges in the Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster is required to remain in the Baltimore area but was recently allowed to visit his home in India, so long as he returned by Monday.

On Sunday, he went to an airport. However, he was barred from boarding his flight — apparently by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, according to his attorney.

Karthikeyan Deenadayalan, the cargo ship’s chief engineer, was charged this summer in connection with the March 2024 ship strike that led to the bridge’s collapse, but he and the federal government agreed to defer his prosecution. That means he can avoid a criminal conviction if he adheres to certain terms.

He spent about a month with family, his first trip home in years. Then he arrived at the airport in Chennai, India, to travel back to Baltimore. Equipped with a sealed letter from the U.S. government, Deenadayalan attempted to board his Emirates flight but was denied entry, his attorney John Connolly wrote in a letter Tuesday to U.S. District Judge James Bredar.

“As I understand it, albeit on hearsay, Emirates stated that its security personnel in Dubai, a stopover on the return trip, had received an email from U.S. Customs and Border Protection,” Connolly wrote. “That email instructed Emirates to decline Mr. Deenadayalan’s letter (or otherwise to deny him boarding) until Mr. Deenadayalan presented to the U.S. Consulate for clearance.”

The consulate was not open, according to Connolly. After “considerable back and forth” between the gate agent, a manager, Deenadayalan and Connolly, “we were unable to convince Emirates to permit him to board the flight,” the attorney wrote.

Deenadayalan returned to his home in India that day and reported the issue to Pretrial Services. It is unclear whether Deenadayalan is still in India or has returned to Maryland. Connolly declined to comment.

“Mr. Deenadayalan remains ready, willing, and able to return to the U.S. as soon as his travel authorization is granted,” Connolly wrote to the judge.

Neither Customs and Border Protection nor the Department of Justice replied to requests for comment.

Deenadayalan was charged in June with violations of the Ports and Waterways Safety Act; prosecutors said he “knowingly and willfully” failed to notify the U.S. Coast Guard of issues with the Dali before it lost power and crashed into the Key Bridge. Six construction workers who had been filling potholes on the roadway were killed.

Deenadayalan hadn’t been home since January 2024, when he initially embarked on the Dali. He has been “effectively detained” over the past 2 1/2 years, his attorneys wrote in a July filing seeking permission for the trip. His wife and two children — now 9 and 13 — have visited him in the U.S. twice.

While in India, he planned to address a challenge to the title of his apartment, where his family lives, and spend time with relatives, his attorneys wrote.

“Defendant’s cousin, who grew up with defendant and was effectively a brother to him, died last year and defendant has not been able to pay his respects,” Connolly and Gregg Bernstein wrote.

The Justice Department has alleged Synergy Marine, the Dali’s operator, irresponsibly maintained the ship’s generators. The department filed criminal charges in May against both the company and a landside employee, Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair. Later, prosecutors filed charges against Deenadayalan.

Several other senior Dali crew members remain in the Baltimore area, pursuant to a deal reached between the federal government and Synergy Marine, the seafarers’ employer. These types of agreements are common in maritime catastrophes. The government keeps potential trial witnesses — or those who might face criminal charges — nearby; in exchange, the company gets access to its lucrative ship. (The Dali was repaired in 2024 and has been sailing and earning revenue since early 2025.)

The seafarers still in Baltimore receive their salary, lodging and a per diem of at least $48. They have occasionally been allowed to visit home. In the U.S., they spend their time keeping in touch with family members by video calls and awaiting updates from attorneys.

Owen Duffy and Marshall Perkins — arguing on behalf of crew members Stephen Jayakumar, Rohit Bisht and Charles Vaz — wrote in a July filing that the seafarers should be allowed to “move on with their lives after being detained in a foreign country for far longer than is reasonable or necessary.” It is “more than fair to say that there appears to be some inherent cruelty in detaining these foreign seafarers for such an extended period,” the attorneys wrote.

The criminal trial is set for October 2027.

In addition to the “personal trauma” they’ve experienced from knowing that people were killed in the disaster, the sailors are lonely and missing out on big moments at home, such as weddings and funerals, attorneys argued.

One example is Pongal, a harvest festival in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu that attracts millions of people annually.

“Pongal is a big deal in Tamil Nadu,” Duffy wrote, “but not in Baltimore.”