Daughter of senior Maoist leader C.P Gajurel has been arrested in France for traveling without proper documents and trying to seek asylum in that country, an Indian news agency reported.

Shova Gajurel, the daughter of the Maoist leader who looks after the party's foreign affairs, is being held at the Lesquin Administrative Retention Centre in Lille town in northern France where foreigners found guilty of violating immigration laws are detained, Indo Asian News Service said.

Shova was traveling to the France-Belgium border to meet friends when she was arrested last week near Valenciennes, a commune in northern France.

UCPN (Maoist) sympathisers have formed a committee to secure her release.

She is known to have applied for asylum in France saying her life is in danger if she returns Nepal. However, her application was turned down and has now re-applied.

Her sympathisers are putting pressure on Sarkozy government to grant Shova asylum, saying that since the fall of the Maoist government in May, the situation has become tense in Nepal.

C.P Gaujurel himself was held in Chennai, India, three years ago while trying to fly to London with fake travel documents in August 2003. He was released from Indian jail in November 2006.

Daughter of senior Maoist leader C.P Gajurel has been arrested in France for traveling without proper documents and trying to seek asylum in that country, an Indian news agency reported.

Shova Gajurel, the daughter of the Maoist leader who looks after the party's foreign affairs, is being held at the Lesquin Administrative Retention Centre in Lille town in northern France where foreigners found guilty of violating immigration laws are detained, Indo Asian News Service said.

Shova was traveling to the France-Belgium border to meet friends when she was arrested last week near Valenciennes, a commune in northern France.

UCPN (Maoist) sympathisers have formed a committee to secure her release.

She is known to have applied for asylum in France saying her life is in danger if she returns Nepal. However, her application was turned down and has now re-applied.

Her sympathisers are putting pressure on Sarkozy government to grant Shova asylum, saying that since the fall of the Maoist government in May, the situation has become tense in Nepal.

C.P Gaujurel himself was held in Chennai, India, three years ago while trying to fly to London with fake travel documents in August 2003. He was released from Indian jail in November 2006.