UP court rules 6 months jail for 3 straying Chinese

A local court in Uttar Pradesh's Bahraich district on Wednesday awarded six months imprisonment, together with a fine of Rs 50,000 each, to three Chinese nationals, including a woman, who had strayed into the Indian territory from the Indo-Nepal border at Rupaidiha. 

While issuing the conviction order, Chief Judicial Magistrate Satya Prakash Dwivedi declared in the open court that the three months period spent by the Chinese nationals in jail during the period of the court trial would be treated as part of the imprisonment. As such, the actual period of imprisonment would be reduced to three months.

In the event of non payment of the fine, the convicts would have to undergo an additional imprisonment of six months, the order said.

The magistrate further directed the jail authorities to ensure that the three arrested foreigners were handed over to the Chinese embassy officials, in order to ensure that they were transported back to their native land.

Identified as Xue Dongli, Chen Rong and Yang Liu Yang (the lady), who were part of a Chinese telecom company Huawei team engaged in installation of cellphone towers in different parts of Nepal.

They were carrying out a survey in Nepalganj district of Nepal when they 'accidentally strolled down the main road into the Indian border at Rupadiha.'

Before they could realise their mistake, they were hauled up by the Seema Suraksha Bal sleuths, who man the Indo-Nepal border. Since their Chinese passports did not have the requisite Indian Visa, they were charged of intrusion into the Indian border and even suspected of spying.

Even the Chinese ambassador to India made a special appeal to both the Indian government and the UP government for their release, but the law was set to take its own course.

However, his intervention did help in shifting them to the Lucknow jail which surely has better facilities than Bahraich.