Dharamsala:  Tibetan religious leader the Karmapa was asked 50 questions by police yesterday about the nearly Rs70 million (Dh5.6 million) worth of unaccounted-for foreign and Indian currency recovered from his monastery.

Denying all allegations, he said the money was given by his devotees and he had not done anything to harm India's interests.

A Himachal Pradesh police team, led by Una's Additional Superintendent of Police K.G. Kapoor, reached the Gyuto Tantric University and Monastery near here to question the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, who was quizzed on Friday as well.

"Fifty questions were asked to the Karmapa and he denied all allegations. He said the money recovered was money given by devotees," Kapoor said. "But we are not happy with his replies and he is likely to be questioned again," he added.

Interrogation

In a related development, Dharamsala businessman and hotelier K.P. Bhardwaj and D.K. Dhar, manager of the Corporation Bank in Ambala in Haryana, were Sunday brought for interrogation to Una, 100km from the Karmapa's monastery.

Soon after the Karmapa was questioned, a spokesperson for the Tibetan religious leader denied allegations against him, stressing he was not a Chinese agent.

"The Karmapa has not done anything wrong to undermine and harm the interests of India," Karma Topden, the spokesperson, told reporters.

"The Karmapa has got offerings from all over the world. The cash was donated money. There is no hawala link to money," he said.

On his China links, Topden clarified: "His very escape from Tibet and arrival in India clearly shows Tibetan people are being suppressed by the Chinese," he said.

He also cited reasons for the Karmapa's escape from Tibet that included the Chinese putting pressure on him to go against Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and completing his spiritual studies.

A string of central government agencies got into the picture Saturday to get to the bottom of the recovery of unaccounted currency. The most baffling part of the total seizure from the monastery was the 1.1 million Yuan (Dh615,000) and over $600,000 (Dh2.2 million).

The presence of Chinese Yuan brought controversy about the Karmapa's alleged links to China to the fore again. He had arrived mysteriously from his monastery near Lhasa in January 2000.