Two associates of Chinese ‘spy’ detained from Himachal
DHARAMSALA, 25 Aug: The Himachal Pradesh police have detained two persons, a Chinese woman and a Tibetan man, for their alleged connection with Charlie Peng, a suspected Chinese spy rearrested by the Income Tax(IT) Department allegedly for ‘running a hawala network for Chinese companies while out on bail.
Lan Hu and Sonam Wangdu were detained after the police established financial transactions between them and SK Traders (Hawala company) of Charlie Peng, the alleged Chinese spy.
“We had inputs of financial transactions and both have a history of foreign visits and they are being questioned,” the Tribune quoted DGP Sanjay Kundu as saying.
The top cop of Himachal has added that inquiries are on and further details were awaited as the state police and Intelligence Bureau (IB) were carrying out a joint investigation into the matter.
According to reports, the Chinese woman who has been living in Bir, Kangra district of the state for a while with her two daughters and the Tibetan man who reportedly works at a Tibetan school in Chauntra town of Mandi district were on the payroll of Peng to snoop on the Dalai Lama.
“The case is being investigated and preliminary investigations pointed out that they were paid to track and report the movement of the Dalai Lama,” Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has said.
After the detention of the two associates of Peng, the chief minister has directed the state police to further strengthen the Dalai Lama’s security.
Meanwhile, Hindustan Times has reported that two more people closely associated with the Tibetan man, who allegedly distributed the hawala money to get information on Dalai Lama’s movement are also being questioned by the security agencies.
Charlie Peng, alias, Lou Sang was arrested from Majnuka-Tilla, in New Delhi, the capital of India for running an espionage ring in India in a top-secret intelligence operation by Delhi Police’s special cell on 13 Sept. 2018.
The authorities who have been closely watching him after the Delhi court granted him bail in 2019 have stated that he resumed his hawala trade once he was out of the prison.
The authorities suspect the alleged Chinese spy who hails from Nanjing of being a highly trained Chinese agent. He was rearrested on 11 Aug and booked for money laundering after the IT department acted on intelligence input and conducted searches in 21 locations in Delhi, Ghaziabad and Gurugram.
