E-Paper
‘Not spy but Chinese woman caught in Bodh Gaya flouted visa rule, to be deported’
The Chinese woman detained in Bodh Gaya slipped up on complying with the basic visa condition that requires foreigners to report to the FRRO, said an official. She entered the country in 2019 and has been living in the country since then
PATNA: A Chinese woman detained in Bihar’s Bodh Gaya over concerns that she might be involved in espionage in connection with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will be deported, a senior Bihar police officer said on Thursday evening after intelligence officers grilled the woman and did not find any evidence linking her to espionage.
“There is no evidence to indicate that she was a spy”, Bihar’s additional director general (headquarters) Jitendra Singh Gangwar said after the interrogation of the woman, identified as Song Xiaolan, concluded late on Thursday evening.
But the woman, who first arrived India on a five-year-long visa in 2019, had been flouting visa conditions that required her to report to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) concerned. “She had not reported to FRRO even once,” said Gaya senior superintendent of police Harpreet Kaur.
Last week, FRRO’s Kolkata office ordered cancellation of her visa that was valid till 2024 in view of violations of visa conditions and issued her a leave India notice.
It is not clear if the intelligence input that red-flagged her presence in Bodh Gaya on Wednesday was triggered by the FRRO report.
The input received by the Gaya police on Wednesday expressed concern about her presence in Bodh Gaya at a time the Dalai Lama is also in the sprawling pilgrimage town. Last evening, the state police circulated a sketch of the Chinese national.
Harpreet Kaur said the Chinese woman first came to India on October 19, 2019, on a tourist visa and was in Bodh Gaya to attend sessions conducted by the Dalai Lama. In January 2020, she travelled for four days to Nepal and returned on 20 January 2020.
At some point just before the Covid-19 pandemic, Song Xiaolan went to Dharamshala, the seat of the Tibbetan government in exile. She stayed at the Central Tibetan Seva Association at , McLeod Ganj through the Covid induced lockdown.
She came to Bodh Gaya only on December 22, the same day the Dalai Lama reached the pilgrimage town.
Kaur added that she has been referred to the FRRO to execute the formalities in connection with her deportation.
