Shimla:
Eight people have been arrested this morning from a monastery in Chauntra village of Mandi district in Himachal Pradesh on charges of visa violation. Initially, authorities thought they were Chinese and had over-stayed their visas.
But a few hours later, it turned out that the people were actually from Taiwan. However it is still not clear whether these passports are forged or genuine. For now, a case of visa violations has been registered against the eight.
There were also concerns about espionage, though Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal at the time had cautioned, "It is too early to reach any conclusion as we have no experts of Chinese language."
During the raids in the building where they lived, the police also recovered currency worth Rs 30 lakh, US $3,000 and some other foreign currencies in cash and mobile phones suspected to have Chinese SIM cards and international ATM cards from them. Police sources say that the available evidence indicates that this could be an illegal money transfer racket linked to the Kaigyu sect headed by the Karmapa who is the Tibetan spiritual leader, tipped to take the mantle of the Dalai Lama in the future.
The 26-year old who is the current embodiment of Karmapa Lama, a sacred role in Tibetan Buddhism, was implicated by the police in December 2011, following a seizure of $1.4 million from his monastery in Himachal Pradesh earlier in the year. However, the charges filed by police in a district court against 10 people including the Karmapa related to a smaller amount of money.
Three men were first arrested after the police raided the monastery following intelligence inputs yesterday.
The arrested Taiwanese nationals have been living in the building; protected by a 15-foot high wall, for quite some time and some of them were reportedly working as masons, carpenters and painters.
The police were investigating as to how they managed to come together in a remote village like Chauntra and are looking for the owner of the building where they were living.