India on Friday lodged a strong protest with the Netherlands government over the arrest of chief executive of i-flex solutions' Dutch subsidiary Senthil Kumar in London and detention of other employees in the Netherlands for alleged visa violations, terming it as "grossly unfortunate, objectionable and patently unwarranted."

New Delhi's serious concern over the incident was conveyed to Dutch authorities by India's Ambassador at the Hague Shyamala Kaushik and to the Dutch Ambassador in New Delhi P F C Koch by the External Affairs Ministry.

"They had valid business visas and they are from a highly reputed firm," External Affairs Ministry spokesman told reporters to a volley of questions.

"Such treatment was absolutely unwarranted. Most of them have left or are in the process of leaving the Netherlands," he said.

He said the i-flex arm's CEO was arrested in London at the behest of Dutch authorities. The Indian High Commission in London has taken it up with the British authorities, he said.

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office conveyed that the arrest of Kumar was carried out at the instance of the Dutch authorities and after Interpol was alerted.

The spokesman said Kumar had a "perfectly valid UK visa. His arrest was not intimated to our High Commission. He was refused bail. So far, he has not been given consular access. We are told it will be on April one but again we have taken up the issue."

Kumar is in judicial custody and so it is not an administrative matter and the hearing will come up next week, the Indian mission was told.

He said the MEA was also in touch with the British High Commission in New Delhi.

The spokesman said, "We do feel that such action, although it is painted as visa fraud, actually smacks of economic protectionism. It is a sort of neo-non-tariff barriers."

He said such action "will certainly come in the way of free flow of services and professionals, particularly given the fact that these are highly-qualified and reputed professionals".

Observing that i-flex was not 'fly-by-night' operator, he said it was one of the top 20 software exporters in India with revenue in excess of $100 million. "It has more than 390 customers in 89 countries and services them through three subsidiaries".

Asked about the motive for such action, he said "I don't know. It is mystifying. They hold valid Shengan visas. This is not the first time they have visited the Netherlands and the purpose of the visit has been clearly stated."

"Now to say that they had business visas and they should have working permits is not justified," he said.

Asked whether Indian IT professionals were being specially targeted abroad this being second instance after the ill-treatment they faced in Malaysia, the spokesman said "this has happened in two different countries in two different circumstances. We cannot draw a strict parallel".

Giving details of the incident, he said 12 Indian software professionals were arrested on March 26 in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht and detained for some hours in police stations and not allowed to contact the Indian mission or their company.

"The treatment was humiliating", he said adding their personal effects were confiscated and passports seized.