The police and tax authorities conducted raids on Sidhbari’s (near Dharamsala) Gyuto Tantric Temple — the abode of the 17th Karmapa, Ugyen Trinley Dorji, who is among Tibet’s top three spiritual leaders and widely speculated as a successor to the Dalai Lama.
The police said more than `6 crores in unaccounted Indian and foreign currency has been seized in the searches that began on Thursday.
Rubgi Chosang, a close aide of the Karmapa and chief accountant at the Tibetan temple, was arrested Thursday night and remanded to nine days in police custody by a court at Una town.
The raids followed disclosures by two Tibetan men who were arrested in possession of `1 crore in cash at Mehatpur (Una) on Wednesday.
“Searches began only after a go ahead from Delhi and do not personally involve the Karmapa or any other spiritual person,” a senior intelligence official told this newspaper.
Himachal Pradesh additional director-general police S.R. Mardi told reporters Friday’s raids on the Gyuto Tantric Temple included officers from all Central government agencies concerned with the presence of Tibetan refugees in India.
According to the police officer, the cash seizures include Chinese yuan, United States and Hongkong dollars, euros and nearly `53 lakhs.
The police believe large sums of cash were kept at the Karmapa’s abode to fund “illegal” land deals. Much of this is believed to have been routed in through hawala channels or in simply in the form of offerings from devotees.
The Karmapa has a huge overseas following amongst some of the richest Tibetans and Tibet sympathisers in the world.
Both, the Dalai Lama’s secretariat at Mcleodganj (Dharamsala) and the Karmpama’s offices at Sidhbari refused to make any comment on either the searches or the cash seizures.
The Tibetan government-in-exile too declined reaction.