Category: Urgyen Trinley Dorje
SHIMLA: The Himachal Pradesh high court on Wednesday quashed dropping of charges against 17th Karmapa Ogyene Trinley Dorje in the 2011 foreign currency haul case.
Karmapa was named as the 10th accused after police recovered currencies of 26 countries, including 120,197 Chinese yuan and around Rs 5.3 million Indian rupees, from Dharamshala's Karma Garchen Trust-run Gyuto Tantric University and Monastery on January 28, 2011.
The police investigation had concluded the money was part of a hawala transaction.
A lower court had earlier quashed the case against Dorje, who is the second highest Tibetan spiritual leader after the Dalai Lama, in 2012.
"The prime position of his occupying the chairmanship of the Karma Garchen Trust, Sidhwari, cannot absolve him of the attribution of a role to him, merely on the ground that he was not a signatory to the relevant documents nor the tainted money comprising the sale consideration, for the land transaction having flowed out from his hands to the vendors," the high court said.
It said the lower court appears to have "overlooked and abandoned" the material on record while accepting the government's plea to withdraw the case.
Karmapa had told cops that the money belonged to the trust and its employees operated it and he had no knowledge about it.
His name was included in the charge-sheet filed in December 2011, and he was charged under Section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
An NGO from Sikkim had filed a revision petition against a lower court's orders in May 2012 allowing the Himachal Pradesh government's plea seeking permission for withdrawal of the case against Dorje.
SHIMLA: The Himachal Pradesh high court on Wednesday quashed dropping of charges against 17th Karmapa Ogyene Trinley Dorje in the 2011 foreign currency haul case.
Karmapa was named as the 10th accused after police recovered currencies of 26 countries, including 120,197 Chinese yuan and around Rs 5.3 million Indian rupees, from Dharamshala's Karma Garchen Trust-run Gyuto Tantric University and Monastery on January 28, 2011.
The police investigation had concluded the money was part of a hawala transaction.
A lower court had earlier quashed the case against Dorje, who is the second highest Tibetan spiritual leader after the Dalai Lama, in 2012.
"The prime position of his occupying the chairmanship of the Karma Garchen Trust, Sidhwari, cannot absolve him of the attribution of a role to him, merely on the ground that he was not a signatory to the relevant documents nor the tainted money comprising the sale consideration, for the land transaction having flowed out from his hands to the vendors," the high court said.
It said the lower court appears to have "overlooked and abandoned" the material on record while accepting the government's plea to withdraw the case.
Karmapa had told cops that the money belonged to the trust and its employees operated it and he had no knowledge about it.
His name was included in the charge-sheet filed in December 2011, and he was charged under Section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
An NGO from Sikkim had filed a revision petition against a lower court's orders in May 2012 allowing the Himachal Pradesh government's plea seeking permission for withdrawal of the case against Dorje.
