Chinese national held by BSF from Bangladesh-India border says he was in Dhaka recently

Online desk: A 35-year-old Chinese national, who was held by India’s Border Security Force (BSF) near the border with Bangladesh in West Bengal’s Malda district for illegal entry on June 10, has claimed he runs a hotel in a posh locality of Gurugram — a satellite city of Delhi — along with an Indian partner, police sources said.

According to the interrogators of Indian security agencies, the Chinese man, who identified himself as Han Junwe from China’s Hubei province, claims he and his Indian partner PP Kumar had taken a 10-year lease of a 100-room hotel named “Star Spring” from one Jaivir Lohia in October, 2019.

The hotel is located in DLF phase -3 locality of Gurugram in Harayana state, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

Han also claimed to have set up a company in partnership with Kumar in Hyderabad.

During interrogation by officials of Indian security officials at Kaliachawk outpost of BSF in Malda, Han Junwe revealed that he reached Dhaka on June 2 on a business visa and stayed in the Bangladeshi capital with a Chinese friend.

He also said that he had visited India four times in the past — Hyderabad city in 2010 and Delhi and Gurugram thrice after 2019, according to the sources.

He disclosed that when he had gone to Hubei, one of his business partners, namely Sun Jiang, sent him the numbers of 10-15 Indian mobile phone SIMs after a few days, which were received by him and his wife.

Sun was arrested by Anti-Terrorism Squad of Uttar Pradesh police recently on a number of counts including transporting Indian SIM cards to China.

Han Junwe was held around 7:00am on June 10 when he was crossing into the Indian territory. Being challenged by the BSF, he tried to escape but was chased and brought to the border outpost Mahadipur for questioning, BSF sources said.

A Chinese passport bearing a Bangladeshi visa, a laptop and three mobile phone SIM cards were found on Han.

Sources said the Chinese man does not probably understand English, and hence, a security officer conversant in the Mandarin language has been called in for a joint questioning session by officials of the BSF, local police and the intelligence agencies.