The Himachal Police suspects that the huge amount of foreign currency seized during raids at the transit home of 17th Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorje was brought to the state through hawala routes. Currency notes of different countries were recovered during the raids at Gyuto Monastery,6 km from here,yesterday and a close aide of the Karmapa,Rabjaychojan alias Shakti Lama,was arrested and interrogated about the source of the money stacked in the monastery. Director General of Police D S Manhas today said,We suspect that the entire currency was brought to the state illegally,possibly through hawala routes. Investigations are being carried out with the help of top central agencies,he said,adding,Our teams have already left for four places,including Delhi,Chandigarh,Ambala and Dharamshala The money seized yesterday was in currencies of China,Japan,the US,the UK,Australia,Thailand and several other countries and six suitcases had been unearthed.A sum of Rs 4 lakh in Indian currency was also seized and more searches were likely,police said. The raids followed arrest of two persons Asutosh and Sanjay with Rs 1 crore at Una yesterday. The police had raided the monastery after information that black money was being used for transaction of benami land deals,sources said. The money was reportedly drawn from the Majnoo Ka Tila branch of a private sector bank in Delhi and the police was interrogating the duo. Karmapa was reportedly inside the monastery when the raids were conducted. Both the offices of The Dalai Lama and The Karmapa Lama have not reacted till now to the recovery of the money.
