Top Tibetan
monk faces India money-laundering charges
July 9,
2015 Malay Mail Online
NEW DELHI — A top Tibetan monk who
is seen as a potential successor to the Dalai Lama is to be
prosecuted for money-laundering after an Indian court overturned a
decision to drop charges, police said today.
At a hearing
yesterday at the Himachal Pradesh High Court, a judge issued an
order for authorities to open criminal proceedings against Karmapa
Urgyen Trinley over the recovery of around US$1 million (RM3.8
million) in foreign currency during a raid on his Buddhist
monastery four years ago.
Although criminal
conspiracy charges were filed in the aftermath of the raid, a
district court had dismissed the case in 2012 in a verdict that was
later appealed and the subject of yesterday's hearing.
"The impugned order
of May 21, 2012, passed by the judicial magistrate of Una is
quashed and dismissed," Judge Sureshwar Thakur said in his
judgement, a copy which has been obtained by AFP.
Local police Chief
Anupam Sharma confirmed that the first step in bringing a
prosecution had begun.
"We have already
filed a chargesheet in the court against him," Sharma told AFP,
meaning that police have filed an outline of the evidence against
the accused with the court.
The case dates back
to a raid in January 2011 on a monastery in the Himalayan town of
Dharamshala in which investigators say stacks of bank notes from 26
different currencies were recovered, including more than US$100,000
worth of Chinese yuan.
The raid came after
two people were pulled over by police in a car containing large
amounts of cash. During interrogations, the pair said the money was
meant for a land deal involving a trust headed by
Trinley.
The 30-year-old
Trinley has denied any wrongdoing, saying the bank notes found in
the monastery were donations from devotees which had accumulated
over the years and that he had no involvement in the land
deal.
The monk is revered
by followers as the 17th incarnation of the head of the Karma Kagyu
lineage, one of the four major schools of Tibetan
Buddhism.
He fled Tibet at the
turn of the century at the age of 14, reaching India after an
eight-day journey by foot and horseback over the
Himalayas.
Since fleeing, he
has mainly lived at the Gyuto Monastery in Dharamshala, the
northern Indian hill station that is the seat of the Tibetan
government in exile.
Trinley is
recognised by both China and the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of
the Karmapa Lama, head of the Karma Kagyu lineage, one of Tibetan
Buddhism's four major schools.
He is seen as having
the highest profile of a cast of young lamas who could succeed the
Dalai Lama who has just turned 80.
His appearances with
the Dalai Lama have fuelled speculation he is being groomed as the
Nobel peace laureate's spiritual successor.
His spokesman
Kunzang Chungyalpa said Trinley has great faith in India's judicial
system.
"He strongly
believes truth will prevail at the end," he told AFP. —
AFP