Karmapa?s sect buying property illegally: Himachal DGP

Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh) : Himachal Pradesh Director General of Police DS Minhas has claimed that Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorje?s sect has been buying property in India illegally through frontal organizations.

Minhas said there are at least six property in the name of the Karmapa?s people in the country, though Tibetan refugees cannot legally procure any property.

In an interview to news channel CNN-IBN, the DGP said the Karmapa?s people were trying to buy or have bought in the name of frontal organizations property in four locations in Himachal Pradesh and one each in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarkhand.

Minhas also refused to accept the Karmapa?s contention that the cash, including foreign currency notes, seized were donations from devotees.

?In some of the cash found we found that the notes like Chinese Yuan were fresh from the bank pertaining to the year 2005, some were in serial numbers. Such huge money including Indian currency casts a doubt as to why his money has been kept in cash to take care of these deals. On the face it does not appear to be the offerings,? he said.

Minhas added that the vast wealth the Karmapa sect possessed accounted for the massive following it boasted of.

?In 1983 when the 16th Karmapa died ?.. the sect holds properties worth around $1.3 billion around the world. So that way it is a very powerful sect and very wealthy sect,? the DGP said.

Tibetan religious leader Ogyen Trinley Dorje has been questioned twice in connection with nearly Rs 7 crore worth of unaccounted foreign and Indian currency in his monastery.

The Karmapa has continued to plead innocence and maintain that money was given by devotees.

At least five people were arrested so far in connection with the money trail.

Police said while five were arrested, all investigating agencies are probing the case of the Karmapa’s alleged China links and money trail after huge amount of currencies, including Chinese yen, were recovered.

Reports said the Finance Ministry has sought a report from the Himachal Pradesh government on the Karmapa issue.

The monastery in Dharamsala said they would cooperate with the police and other agencies probing the source of the money.

Dorje was enthroned as the 17th Karmapa ? the head of the Karma Kagyu, one of the schools of Tibetan Buddhism ? after the death of the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje. But his election has been embroiled in controversy and Trinley Thaye Dorje operates as a parallel Karmapa.

With about 11 lakh in Chinese yuan (Rs 76 lakh) being recovered in the raids, questions are being raised on whether Dorje was acting as a Chinese agent in Himachal Pradesh.

The head of the second-biggest Buddhist sect in Tibet, he escaped from China and arrived at the Tibetan exile quarters at McLeod Ganj in 2000. Officials now suspect that the escape was staged, reports said.

Authorities believe that with the money that was recovered on Friday, the Karmapa intended to set up a China-friendly Monastery on Kangra, Himachal Pradesh in an attempt to rally support for the country.

This is said to be Dorje?s third attempt to acquire land in Kangra, following attempts earlier in 2007 and 2008 which were halted by the RBI and Enforcement Directorate after the started scrutinising the sources of the cash.