Arkansas, United States: An Indian national is facing possible deportation and battling to restore his legal residency in the United States after being wrongly arrested over a bottle of perfume.

Kapil Raghu, who lives in Arkansas and is married to an American citizen, Ashley Mays, was pulled over by police on May 3 in Benton, a suburb of Little Rock, for a routine traffic stop. During the stop, officers discovered a small bottle labelled “Opium” in his vehicle’s centre console — a popular perfume by Yves Saint Laurent — and mistakenly believed it to be the illegal drug.

Despite Raghu's immediate clarification that the label referred to a commercial fragrance, he was arrested on suspicion of drug possession. “You got a vial of opium that was in your centre console,” an officer said, according to bodycam footage cited by a local media outlet. Raghu insisted that he had done nothing wrong and had complied with all regulations.

His wife, Ashley, arrived at the scene in disbelief. “I’m confused on why he’s going to jail,” she told local reporters. The arrest left the family shaken, despite the Arkansas State Crime Lab later confirming that the substance was, in fact, perfume.

Raghu, however, spent three days in the Saline County Jail before being transferred to a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Louisiana. During this period, officials discovered an administrative lapse indicating his visa had expired. Though the original charges were dropped by a district court judge on May 20, Raghu remained detained by immigration authorities for 30 days.

The incident has now severely disrupted his path to permanent residency. His work visa has been revoked, and his immigration record now includes a “deportation” classification — making him vulnerable to removal from the US over even minor infractions. “More crucially, this classification bars him from working and earning money for his family, which has been devastating for them,” said Raghu’s attorney, Mike Laux, as per reports.

The couple married in April this year, and Ashley had previously travelled to India to meet Raghu’s family, whom she described as treating her “like a golden gem in their life”. Raghu's father and uncle are both retired police officers in India.

The case, first reported by The Guardian, has sparked concern over how routine encounters can lead to significant immigration consequences, especially for non-citizens. Advocates say it highlights the precarious legal status of many immigrants, who may find themselves facing deportation over administrative errors or misunderstandings.

A fundraising campaign has since been launched to help the couple with legal costs and basic living expenses while Raghu is unable to work. He continues to seek reinstatement of his visa and hopes to secure permanent residency, a process now complicated by what began as nothing more than a mislabelled perfume bottle.