Foreign currency: police conduct raids, quiz arrested persons

Police on Monday raided the premises of a Tibetan at Manali and Delhi and also quizzed a Dharamsala-based hotelier and bank manager in connection with the seizure of foreign currency from a transit home of Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorje.

Police on Monday raided the premises of a Tibetan at Manali and Delhi and also quizzed a Dharamsala-based hotelier and bank manager in connection with the seizure of foreign currency from a transit home of Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorje.

HT Image

IGP P L Thakur said hotelier K P Bharadwaj and manager of Ambala branch of Corporation Bank D K Dhar, who were arrested on Sunday, were questioned to ascertain the source of the seized foreign currency worth over Rs 7.5 crore.

"Police investigations are on to locate the source but nothing can be said until the documents and information gathered are verified and the routes through which money had reached the monastery are identified," Thakur said.

Meanwhile, police raided the premises of a Tibetan at Manali and Delhi on the basis of information gathered from arrested persons. They are scanning the documents allegedly pertaining to some land deals and Power of Attorney seized during the raids as Tibetans having a refugee status were not entitled to buy any land in Himachal Pradesh.

The verification of documents seized from offices of the Karmapa-backed Trust and premises of others associated with activities of the Gyuto Monastery by Himachal Police and sleuths of IB and Enforcement department continued for the fourth day.

Police had quizzed Karmapa for about 50 minutes on Sunday.

Further questioning would only be done if some vital information about his connection with foreign currency was extracted in the course of investigation, Thakur said.

During questioning, Karmapa said that he was not aware about the seizure of foreign currency worth over Rs 7.5 crore from the monastery and maintained that Shakti Lama and Gompu Tshering handled the affairs of the trust.

Karmapa's office had also maintained that Karmapa had nothing to do with currency and money was received by way of offerings and donations from the disciples coming from different parts of the world, including China and Tibet.

Police have also directed the Gyuto Tantrik Monastery, transit home of Karmapa to maintain a register of visitors.