Indian police releases a suspected Chinese spy pigeon after 8 months in bird lockup
A pigeon, suspected to have been used for spying by China, was recently released by Indian police into the wild on Tuesday. The pigeon was kept in the custody of a veterinary hospital in Mumbai. Initially, the police had registered a case of spying against the bird, but after completing their inquiry, they dropped the charge.
The pigeon was captured in May 2023 near a port in Mumbai with two rings tied to its legs, carrying words that looked like Chinese. Eventually, it turned out the pigeon was an open-water racing bird from Taiwan that had escaped and made its way to India.
It is not the first time a bird has come under police suspicion in India. In 2020, police in Indian-controlled Kashmir released a pigeon belonging to a Pakistani fisherman after a probe found that the bird, which had flown across the heavily militarized border between the nuclear-armed nations, was not a spy.
In 2016, another pigeon was taken into custody after it was found with a note that threatened Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
