A pigeon that spent eight months in Indian police custody has been released after it was finally cleared of being a suspected Chinese spy.
The bird was caught at a port in Mumbai with “messages written in a Chinese-like script” on its wings, the Times of India newspaper reported.
“Initially, the police had registered a case of spying against the bird, but after completing their inquiry, they dropped the charge,” the report added.
Photo: AP
An investigation at a Mumbai animal hospital determined the bird was an open-water racing pigeon that had escaped from Taiwan and winged its way to India, the Taiwan News Web site reported.
After the bird’s origin was determined, it was transferred to an animal welfare group, which set it free.
A spokesperson for the Taiwan Pigeon Racing Association said that it was possible the bird could have flown to India from Taiwan, although there was no way of being sure it was from Taiwan, as Indian police did not release its serial number.
The unnamed bird was held under lock and key at a city hospital while police carried out an investigation.
That probe took an “astonishing eight months,” the India office of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said in a statement on Thursday.
PETA India said police on Wednesday had granted “formal permission for the hospital to release the pigeon.”
Local media reports said the bird fluttered away in good health.
The pigeon is the latest of several detained by Indian authorities on suspicion of espionage. Border security officers took a pigeon into custody in 2016 after it was found carrying a threatening message to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi close to India’s border with Pakistan.
Another pigeon was held under armed guard in 2010 after it was found in the same region with a ring around its foot and a Pakistani phone number and address stamped on its body in red ink.
Officials in that case directed that no one should be allowed to visit the pigeon, which police said might have been on a “special mission of spying.”
Additional reporting by staff writer
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