Chinese national booked for spying, under judicial custody for another 2 months

GANGTOK, 04 Nov: Liangki Jiancen, the 20-year-old Chinese national who had been arrested by the police up at Nathula border on charges of spying has been remanded to judicial custody for a period of 2 months.
He was produced before the courts in Gangtok last week when the order was issued.
Interestingly, unconfirmed reports suggest that the Chinese National refused the option to be deported or pushed back into Tibetan Autonomous Region of China. Although he was found to have been taking photographs of certain infrastructure and locations along the border as he entered Sikkim as part of a border trade group from Tibet the espionage accused, surprisingly, does not seem too keen to return home.
Liangki, a resident of Shigatse, a city in the Tibetan Autonomous Region was intercepted by the Indo Tibetan Border Police, the paramilitary agency manning the border in the Nathula region, after he was caught taking photographs of the restricted area on his mobile phone from his vehicle. The mobile phone was seized and Liangki was charged under the Official Secrets Act.
Initially he was remanded for a period of 15 days but this has now been extended to 2 months. The refusal to be pushed back, as reported, could stem from the unpleasant prospect of being grilled for days on end by Chinese authorities on the other side once he is pushed back into China.
While the court will give its final order later, it is being speculated that the plan of the Chinese national is to be ‘handed over’ to one of the Tibetan Associations in the state for ‘deportation’ via Rangpo and eventually end up in Dharamsala. A couple of months ago, another Tibetan, Karma Gelek who was released from the state prison, also found his way to Dharamsala in the same fashion it is informed.
Liangki’s arrest had created some tension up at the border region with the Chinese authorities demanding his immediate release and trade had actually shut down for a week.