NIA raids private office near Dalai Lama's palace in McLeodganj, owner's Khalistani links suspected

Dharamsala, July 4 (IANS) A team from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday raided the commercial office of Sunny, owner of Sunny Communication Centre near the Dalai Lama’s official palace in McLeodganj, home to the Tibetan government-in-exile.

The suspect was recently married to a foreign woman.

The agency is examining bank records and other documents linked to Sunny.

The NIA team, comprising 10 to 12 officers, arrived here from Chandigarh around 4 a.m.

Though the investigation is ongoing, the NIA officials have not issued any formal statement regarding the investigation.

Sunny was recently married to a Russian woman and got rich overnight, which has caught the attention.

He has recently purchased a three-storey house, which is also under scrutiny for his possible international links.

Sources said Sunny’s possible connections with overseas individuals, particularly those associated with Khalistani networks, operating both within India and abroad, are being investigated.

The NIA has seized several documents, computer hard drives and mobile phones for forensic examination.

The local police have no information about the NIA raid.

Station House Officer (SHO) Deepak Kumar, who is posted in McLeodganj, told the media that local police had not been informed in advance about the NIA operation.

“The raid appears to be related to some high-level security concerns,” he said.

More details were awaited.

The Station House Officer (SHO) of McLeodganj Police Station, Deepak Kumar, said that they had not been informed in advance about the NIA operation. He said they were trying to ascertain the details. Another official stated that the raid was linked to alleged terror financing activities benefiting Khalistani groups.

Last month, the NIA conducted a series of searches across Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh to probe Khalistani terror network.

NIA teams launched searches at 18 locations in the three northern states. They seized various incriminating materials, including mobiles, digital devices and documents. The searches were conducted at the premises of suspects linked with banned outfit Babbar Khalsa International (BKI) operative Kulbir Sidhu, US-based gangster Manish alias Kaka Rana, and their nodes based in India and various other countries, according to a statement issued by the probe agency.

--IANS

vg/dpb