Rs 1.2 crore worth diamonds seized

Mumbai: Rajendra Bajaj (49), a US passport holder of Indian origin declared the value of his baggage merely at 58 dollars (about Rs 2,300) while he alighted at the Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International airport from New York on late Sunday night.
However, he hardly had an idea that the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of Mumbai Customs was already waiting for the diamonds that he had smartly concealed in his gold chain that he wore on his person. There was not one but 12 diamonds worth Rs 1.2 crore studded in a gold plate that was loosely fitted with his gold chain.
Additional Commissioner of Customs, G Ravindranath said that Bajaj started walking through the green channel pretending that he had nothing to declare. But the Customs authorities had prior information and he was intercepted the moment he crossed the green channel.
Ravindranath said that Bajaj arrived from a Delta Airlines flight (number DL-16) at around 11.30 pm on Sunday.
Customs officers also found that on an average he makes one trip every month. So far he had made 52 trips from US to Mumbai. Ravindranath said that they are investigating the purpose of Bajaj's frequent visit to India.
Bajaj was produced in a local court and was remanded to judicial custody till May 22.
08/05/07 Manish Pachouly/Hindustan Times

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Categories: Airports May 2007