In Bihar's Bodh Gaya, the Chinese spy who never was

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 30

The alleged Chinese spy who had sent Bihar Police into a tizzy turned out to be a lady who had fallen in love with spirituality and overstayed in India on an expired visa.

“She has been slapped with a Leave India notice following visa violation. We are going to hand her over to the authorities concerned for repatriation’’, Bihar Police ADGP J S Gangwar told the media.

The woman was suspected of spying on the Dalai Lama who is in Bodh Gaya for a month.

The woman Song Xiaolan had arrived on a three-month visa but had been staying in the country for over three years. She had recently travelled to Nepal and returned to India on December 22 with a local woman who was apparently spiritually inclined. They together attended the sermon of the Dalai Lama during the Kaal Chakra Puja in Gaya on the same day.

The police picked up both the women from a guest house in Bodh Gaya.

The police made it clear that they wanted to approach the lady for routine questioning. “We have an input about a Chinese woman in Bodh Gaya. Accordingly, we have alerted every hotel, lodge, guest house, and Buddhist monastery. We are also searching for her but have not located so far,’’ Gaya SSP Harpreet Kaur had said on Thursday.

The Foreign Office had also been circumspect with its spokesperson Arindam Bagchi stating that “it looks like a security issue. I certainly don’t think this is the right forum to talk about security-related aspects.’’

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