Shimla: Eight people were arrested this morning in Chauntra village of Mandi district in Himachal Pradesh on charges of visa violation. Initially, authorities thought they were Chinese and had over-stayed their visas. There were concerns about espionage, though officials at the time had cautioned, "Based upon intelligence inputs, the searches were carried out yesterday and we were able to apprehend eight Chinese who were staying there illegally and had not reported to the police."
But a few hours later, it turned out that the people were actually from Taiwan.
During the raids, the police also recovered currency worth Rs 30 lakh, US $3,000 and some other foreign currencies in cash and mobile phones suspected to have Chinese SIM cards and international ATM cards from them.
The raids continued till past mid-night.
The arrested Taiwanese nationals have been living in the house, protected by a 15-foot high wall, for quite some time and some of them were reportedly working as masons.
The police were investigating as to how they managed to come together in a remote village like Chauntra.
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