China rounds up dozens following probe into Bo Xilai scandal

Beijing, Apr 19 (ANI): Chinese law enforcement authorities have detained at least 39 persons in connection with a scandal linked to disgraced communist Party leader Bo Xilai.

The Communist Party has promised to 'thoroughly investigate' Xilai and his wife Gu Kailai for their role in the death of British businessman Neil Heywood.

"The detainees include Xu Ming, who had a very special relationship with Mr Bo, and mainly people from Dalian and other places, not from Chongqing," Wang Kang, an independent scholar and public figure in Chongqing, who is the first person to go on record after Bo's removal from the Chinese Politburo.

Wang added that 41 yr-old Xu is one of China's richest men, a billionaire who heads the Dalian Shide industrial conglomerate, and has been absent from the company since mid-March.

One of the people in custody is Xia Deling, the former party chief of Nan'an district in Chongqing who is rumored to have supplied the cyanide that killed Mr Heywood.

The 350-man Communist Party Central Committee, the body made up of the leading figures among China's government, army and party, claimed to have made a "resolute decision to thoroughly investigate" the web of intrigue around Mr Bo's family and added that Mr Bo had "seriously violated party discipline".

Reports said that allegations of Mr Heywood being romantically involved with Mrs Gu remained unclear while other sources in Chongqing, close to the police investigation, claimed that the relationship was 'platonic'. (ANI)