A pigeon accused of being a Chinese spy has been cleared of espionage by Indian police and released back into the wild.

The bird was captured in May last year near a port in Mumbai, with two rings tied to its legs that appeared to feature Chinese characters.

Suspecting espionage, the police detained the pigeon, later sending it to Mumbai’s Bai Sakarbai Dinshaw Petit Hospital for Animals.

Pigeons are thought to be used by deeply embedded spies to carry encrypted messages back to handlers.

A three-month police investigation found that the pigeon was, in fact, an open-water racing bird from Taiwan that had escaped and flown to India. The bird was released on Tuesday from the hospital premises.

“Now, the pigeon is finally free to soar the skies as every bird should be allowed to do,” Meet Ashar, an official with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India, a non-profit organisation that works to improve the lives of animals, told the Telegraph.

PETA India last week reached out to the police to lobby for the release.

“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 of wrongful imprisonment,” Mr Ashar said.

Authorities found the innocent bird “healthy and occupying a cage unnecessarily” he added.

This is not the first time that birds have been under suspicion in India.

A pigeon was detained in 2020, suspected of carrying spy messages for Pakistan. The Indian Border Security Force passed the pigeon on to the police, who launched an investigation and logged the animal as a ‘Pak Suspected Spy.’

In 2015, the Indian authorities captured a bird that had crossed the border and was found to have a message written on its feathers in Urdu – the national language of Pakistan.

To the disbelief of the international community, the bird was x-rayed and ruffled enough feathers to be also logged as a ‘suspected spy’ by police.

Other countries have also claimed to have held Chinese spy pigeons in the past.

In January 2015, a flock of pigeons was caught in central Vietnam, after Chinese characters were found stamped on their wings with red ink, along with mysterious rings around their ankles.

The pigeons, however, were freed after it turned out that they belonged to racing clubs based in China.

“This episode underscores India’s increased efforts to counter Chinese espionage attempts,” Sana Hashmi, a fellow with Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation told the Telegraph. “The suspicion extends to the point where even birds, reminiscent of past experiences with bird spies involving Pakistan, are perceived as potential tools of Chinese espionage.”

“The growing mistrust between the two countries is evident, leading to heightened threat from China and responses from India,” she added.