Karmapa’s home raided in Dharamsala, foreign currency recovered

DHARAMSALA - Himachal police have seized huge amount of foreign and Indian currency at a transit home of 17th Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorje at Sidhbari near Dharamsala.

ADGP (Law and Order), S R Mardi, said the exact amount of currency notes of different countries recovered during the raids at Gyuto Monastery will be known after counting them.

A close aide of Karmapa, Shakti Lama, was arrested and interrogated about the source of the money stacked in the monastery.

The money was in currencies of China, Japan, the US, the UK, Australia, Thailand and several other countries and so far six suitcases had been unearthed, police said.

Karmapa was reportedly inside the monastery when the raids were conducted.

Thursday’s raid came a day after Rs one crore cash was recovered from two persons whose vehicle was intercepted on a tip-off at Mehatpur barrier bordering Una district.

The cash was allegedly being brought to the state to clear some payments in connection with a land deal in Dharamshala.

Locals, who were called by the police as independent witnesses, said currencies from around 25 countries have been recovered.

“The search has been going on since the last 16 hours. They have recovered currency of around 25 countries. Because of one man the whole monastery has been defamed. He should not have done such things,” said Kishan Bhandari, one of the witnesses.(ANI)