UP: Chinese woman held in 2023 for illegal entry sentenced to 8 years

Bahraich (UP), Nov 17 (PTI) A local court here on Monday sentenced a Chinese woman, arrested two years ago on charges of illegally entering India while disguised as a Buddhist monk, to eight years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000. According to the prosecution, on December 2, 2023, personnel of the 42nd Battalion of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) intercepted the woman at the Rupaideha border outpost along the India-Nepal frontier. She was attempting to cross into Nepal dressed as a Buddhist monk when she was stopped for verification, they said.

Identified as Li Xinmei, alias Li Shin Mei, the 45-year-old held a passport of the Republic of China, which listed her residence as Shandong province. Her passport carried a Nepal visa valid from November 19, 2023, to February 16, 2024. Officials said she had entered India without valid documents. The woman, who allegedly did not understand Hindi or English, was questioned with the help of an interpreter. From her possession, security personnel recovered several foreign documents, a passport, a Chinese citizenship card, ATM cards, a mobile phone, earphones, a massager, a memory book and a religious text in Chinese. She was subsequently booked under Section 14A of the Foreigners Act at the Rupaideha police station and arrested. The chargesheet in the case was filed in December 2023. Delivering the judgment, Additional District and Sessions Judge Kavita Nigam held Li guilty of illegal infiltration into India without a valid visa and awarded her eight years of rigorous imprisonment along with a fine. The court ruled that in the case of default in payment of the fine, she would undergo an additional six months of imprisonment. PTI CORR ABN ABN MPL MPL