Mandi: Eight Taiwanese nationals, who were arrested here on June 13 for alleged illegal stay, were on Saturday remanded in three-day judicial by a local court.
Judicial Magistrate Jia lal Azad also sent owner and caretaker of the house, where the foreigners were staying, to three days in police custody.
Caretaker Tschatin, a Tibetan of Indian origin, was arrested along with eight Taiwanese.
House owner Gankar Rimpoche was arrested from New Delhi and brought to Himachal for interrogation yesterday.
Rinpoche would be interrogated to extract information about his links with arrested Taiwanese and real motive of their stay.
Rinpoche, who reportedly has close links with Tai Setu, the controversial guru of the 17th Karampa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje and was already facing charges in fake passport case.
Meanwhile, sources in revenue department told that the land in question was sold to Tibetan Khampa Industrial Society by former Raja of Mandi in 1961 when the tenancy and land reforms Act was not enacted and land deals did not attract the provisions of sections 118.
The Taiwanese nationals were arrested on the night of June 12 from the house of Sikkim-based Rimpoche.
He was allegedly staying in the palatial house and monastery at Chauntra here and had left the place before the police raided his premises.
While the Taiwanese nationals had tourist visas and had violated the provisions of Foreigners Act, Rimpoche has also been named as an accused in the two cases registered by police.
The sources said that Rimpoche was allegedly having Nepalese and Indian passports and was caught at Delhi Airport in 2009 and a case was registered against him.
The arrested Taiwanese nationals were working as carpenter and painters in the monastery and sources said that some of their compatriots had left a few weeks ago.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, June 16, 2012, 22:13