Charges against Karmapa likely to be dropped

After Tibetan leaders in Dharamsala stepped up efforts to get 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje off the hook in the currency seizure case, the spiritual leader is likely to get a breather

After Tibetan leaders in Dharamsala stepped up efforts to get 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje off the hook in the currency seizure case, the spiritual leader is likely to get a breather as the state government is seriously considering his request to drop charges against him.

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After the Una deputy commissioner recommended the state government to drop charges against the Karmapa, the state home department is seeking legal opinion on the matter.

Reliable sources told Hindustan Times that there was every likelihood that the government dropped Ogyen Trinley Dorje's name from the charge sheet. He is among nine persons named in the charge sheet filed in the court of chief judicial magistrate in a case related to seizure of foreign and Indian currency from a Gyuto Tantric Monastery last year during two days of raid.

The raids followed recovery of Rs 1 crore from an SUV during checking at a barrier in Una. The occupants of the vehicle told the cops that the money belonged to Dharamsala businessman KP Bhardwaj and was part of a land deal struck with Karmapa's aides in Dharamsala.

Karmapa was summoned by the Una chief judicial magistrate on March 6. Karmapa who heads the parallel faction of Karma Kagyu, one of the most powerful of four sects of Buddhism, skipped the hearing on the pretext that he was busy with religious ceremonies in Bodh Gaya.

Police raids on the monastery and Karmapa made national headlines last year and embarrassed Dharamsala-based Tibetan government-in-exile. Ogyen Trinley escaped to India in 1999 from his seat at Tsurphu, a well-guarded monastery in China-controlled Tibetan Autonomous Region.

While mystery shrouded his escape from Tibet, the Indian government put up the young spiritual leader at Gyotu Tantric Monastery near Dharamsala that continues to be his transit home so far.
Karmapa is the lone head of the Tibetans sects who has not yet been denounced by the Chinese communist regime.

Tibetan leaders had stepped up efforts to convince the state government to drop his name from the charge sheet. Tibetan leaders, including Kalon Tripa Lobsang Sangay and minister Dolma Gyari, had met chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, director general of police Dr Daljit Singh and chief secretary Rajwant Sandhu pleading them to remove Karmapa's name from the charge sheet.

It was learnt that the state government officials guided Karmapa's aides to approach the Una deputy commissioner, as the central government had also insisted to remove his name from the charge sheet.

Karmapa had pleaded his innocence in the request and instead held the police responsible for wrongly implicating him.