(TibetanReview.net, Aug26’20) – The police in Himachal Pradesh state of India have detained for questioning on Aug 25 two persons for their alleged links with a Chinese national named Luo Sang alias Charlie Peng who is reported to be involved in a Rs 1,000-crore hawala racket and snooping on Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Hawala is a traditional system of transferring money whereby money is paid to an agent who then instructs an associate in the relevant country or area to pay the final recipient. It can be used to facilitate money laundering, avoid taxation, and move wealth anonymously and is therefore illegal in India and some other countries.
Charlie Peng’s hawala racket was busted by the Income Tax department in Delhi recently.
Mr Sonam Wangdu from Chauntra (Mandi District) and Ms Lan Hu from Bir (Kangra District) were detained after financial transactions were traced between them and SK Traders, the Hawala company of Charlie Peng, who was arrested in Delhi by the Income Tax Department, reported the tribuneindia.com Aug 25.
Central and state agencies are jointly investigating the matter as both the identified persons have travelled to foreign countries many times; their link to possible spying of Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama is also under investigation, reported the timesofindia.com Aug 25.
The report cited police sources as saying the two had a lot of foreign travels despite having low income and they had huge bank transactions.
The report said Wangdu had arrived in India in 2006 from Tibet as a student and was now working as a teacher in the Tibetan settlement at Chauntra while Hu is a Chinese national living with her daughters at Bir.
The countries they had travelled to were stated to include Nepal, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. The report cited preliminary investigation as revealing they had received huge amounts through hawala and had distributed them further.
Investigating authorities have not ruled out the possibility of their involvement in spying as well, the report said.
