Suspicion of overseas espionage, cursive messages in historical Chinese, a delicate microchip — and a suspect that would not be stopped on the border.

Ravindar Patil, the assistant Mumbai police sub-inspector assigned to the case, was scratching his head for solutions. But first, he needed to discover a place to lock up the bizarre captive.

So he turned to a veterinary hospital within the Indian metropolis, asking it to retrieve a listing of “very confidential and necessary” details about the suspect — a black pigeon caught lurking at a port the place worldwide vessels dock.

“The police never came to check the pigeon,” stated Dr. Mayur Dangar, the supervisor of the hospital.

After eight months, the hen was lastly let loose this week, its innocence of spying for China lengthy confirmed by way of crack detective work, however the jail doorways flung open solely after a newspaper report, repeated letters to the police by the veterinary hospital, and intervention from an animal rights group.

The group, PETA India, celebrated what it known as the tip of a “wrongful imprisonment.”

“PETA India handles 1,000 calls a week of animal emergencies, but this was our first case of a suspected spy who needed to be freed,” stated Meet Ashar, who leads the group’s cruelty response division.

Mr. Ashar stated the case had put the hospital’s workers members in a dilemma: They didn’t need to expose a wholesome hen to the sick and injured, however in addition they couldn’t set it free as a result of “it was such a high-profile case and the charge was so serious.”

It isn’t the primary time that India has feared feathered infiltration, however the newest case was an indication of fixing occasions and threats.

In 2014, the authorities within the Himalayan area of Kashmir, on the heart of tense relations between India and Pakistan, arrested a pigeon close to the border on comparable fees.

The hen in Mumbai prompt new twists — it had appeared in a metropolis nowhere close to a contested border, and the Chinese writing inked on its wings pointed to a extra subtle and highly effective rival that India has been grappling with in recent times.

Mr. Patil, the 39-year-old sub-inspector, had handled two animal instances earlier than in his 12-year profession: the loss of life of two canine, one in a suspected poisoning that required a postmortem, and the opposite in a street accident. Neither case had geopolitical ramifications.

This time, nonetheless, “I had to ask advice from our intelligence colleagues,” he stated in a cellphone interview.

The hen had been noticed by guards with the Central Industrial Security Force, which watches over authorities services like ports. Not the primary to forged a important eye on a pigeon, the obligation officer noticed this one loitering alone — “it was just sitting there, and it all looked suspicious to them — chip, and ring on the feet,” Mr. Patil stated. The guards knowledgeable the police.

Once Mr. Patil discovered a spot to lock up the hen, the sluggish work of investigation started. And he began piecing collectively clues.

The rings on the hen’s legs, together with one which had a chip, have been despatched to the forensic sciences lab.

“The chip had details of the location coding — what it is, where it has come from,” he stated.

“Nothing else turned out suspicious,” he added.

He cross-checked the small print with info on-line and concluded that the pigeon was a racing hen from Taiwan. In chatting with the guards on the port, which largely receives oil vessels bringing crude for refining, he realized that Taiwanese ships have been amongst people who docked there. He deduced that the hen had most likely reached Mumbai on one of many ships.

“It may have been weak and injured, and boarded the ship and off-boarded here,” he stated.

As for the cursive Chinese writing on the wings?

“It was not readable,” he stated. “Because it came by sea, it may have faded.”

Just why the hen remained in lockup for a number of months after Mr. Patil had accomplished his investigation is a matter of disagreement. The hospital and PETA say the police weren’t responsive and had basically forgotten in regards to the hen. Mr. Patil stated the hospital had misinterpret directions that the pigeon needs to be freed as soon as in ok well being.

The pigeon “looked no different from our pigeons,” Dr. Dangar stated, and had finished nicely on a neighborhood weight-reduction plan of wheat, millet and rice. So after the police lastly responded to inquiries from the hospital and PETA with a “no objection” letter, it was let loose on Tuesday.

Asked what he would say if the pigeon’s Taiwanese house owners got here to say it, Mr. Patil stated the hen had a brand new dwelling in Indian skies.

“Now it belongs to us, here,” Mr. Patil stated.