Dharamsala: A team of Himachal Pradesh Police has questioned 17th Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorjee, popularly known as Karmapa Lama, about the huge sum of foreign currency recovered during a raid at his office in Dharamsala. The Karmapa Lama was questioned by a three-member police team.
During his questioning Karmapa was aided by a translator as he speaks only Chinese. Karmapa reportedly feigned ignorance about the source of money.
Sources say 1.14 lakh Chinese Yuan recovered from his office on Thursday was in serial number. They claim that such a large sum of money is usually meant for particular purpose. The total seized amount is Rs 7 crore including foreign exchange from 24 countries including China, Taiwan, japan, South Korea, the UK, the US, Australia, Germany.
"Karmapa was interviewed by the investigating officers on the source of money. The links with China is one of the various aspects being looked at. He is not under house arrest but certain restriction has been imposed on him," said Himachal Pradesh Director General of Police DS Minhas.
Shakti Lama, treasurer of Karmapa's monastery Gyato, has been sent to of police custody till February 5.
Karmapa's sister was questioned on Friday.
Meanwhile, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal sought time from the Union Government after the Finance Ministry asked for a report from the state government on the police raids and foreign exchange recovered during a raid at Karmapa's office in Dharamsala on Thursday.
"The Enforcement Directorate, Intelligence Bureau and Ministry of External Affairs are already looking into the matter. We will extend full support to the Government of India and we will follow their instructions," said Dhumal.
Dhumal said that he would raise the issue during an internal security meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram next week.
Comments
0 comment