US missionary Joseph W Cooper, who was ordered to leave India for preaching religion in violation of visa rules, left for his country early on Thursday, sources said. 

Cooper left for the US by an early morning flight of Delta Airlines.

The US missionary, who was injured in an attack by suspected RSS workers at Kilimannur in Kerala on January 13, had arrived in Mumbai from Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.

The 67-year-old from New Castle, USA, who is on a tourist visa, suffered a deep cut on his right palm when he and a local team of evangelists were attacked while returning from a gospel convention at a tribal colony in Koppam near Kilimannur town.

The police had on Monday served orders on Cooper to leave the country within seven days after he was prima facie found to have violated visa rules.