A freelance Indian journalist was arrested by the special cell of Delhi Police last week after he was found working for Chinese intelligence officers. The arrest has unveiled the fact that China paid the Indian journalist to write fake news on His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration apart from other anti-national activities.

61 year old Rajeev Sharma was arrested by the Special Cell unit of Delhi Police on September 14 following a tip from an Intelligence Agency. The police on interrogation has found that freelance journalist has been providing sensitive information to China in exchange of money. A Chinese agent has offered him $500 per article/information on His Holiness the Dalai Lama related issues.

“In January,2019, Rajeev Sharma came in contact with another Kunming based Chinese entity George. He visited Kunming China via Kathmandu and met George. George was introduced as a General Manager of a Chinese Media Company. During the meeting, George asked Rajeev Sharma to write/inform about Dalai Lama related issues. For this Rajeev Sharma was offered 500 USD per article/information.” said the statement issued by Delhi Police on the matter.

The investigators have found that Rajeev has received more than Rs. 30 Lacs from George in about 10instalmentsfrom January 2019 to September 2020 spreading fake news on the Tibetan spiritual leader related matters. According to the official report of Central Tibetan Administration, the arrest has disclosed China’s efforts to malign His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s image, delegitimize the CTA leadership through such means.

In fact, his articles published on South Asian Monitor and The Quint in 2018 [‘Differences between Dalai Lama and CTA president put Tibetan politics in a tailspin’ November 27; ‘The Dalai Lama has chosen his successor’ September 26, 2018; ‘Dalai Lama wants to return to Tibet but China no longer keen to play ball,’ November 14, 2018; ‘The Dalai Lama is terminally ill, sources say,’ June 11, 2018] are credibly suspected to have been fully backed and funded by Chinese intelligence, added the CTA report. It is suspected that these are just the tip of an ice berg of such efforts perpetrated by China.

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