The Himachal Pradesh government is now moving to acquire the land of Gyuto Monastery, the transit home of Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorje, as the probe into seizure of large amount of foreign currency from the monastery brought fresh focus on benami deals by the community members.
A trust backed by Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorje could have amassed benami property and illegally stashed foreign currency worth Rs 20 crore, investigators claimed.
Bank accounts of a trust backed by Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorje and its trustees have been frozen in connection with the probe into the seizure of a huge amount of foreign currency from a transit home of the Tibetan spiritual leader. "It (freezing of bank accounts) is part of the investigation process as bank accounts were being thoroughly screened for money transactions," Inspector General of Police P L Thakur said on Friday.
Headed by Deputy Director (North) V Neerja, the ED team reached the Gyuto Monastery at Sidhbari just before noon and had a marathon question-answer session lasting four hours and 40 minutes.
The police on Saturday continued searches at the offices of a trust backed by 17th Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorje, who was questioned over the seizure of foreign currency valued at Rs 7 crore.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured a Buddhist delegation that he will personally look into the case of recovery of foreign currency to the tune of Rs 7.5 crore from Gyuto Monastery, the transit home of Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorje, in Himachal Pradesh.