The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has busted a multi-crore money laundering racket at the Bharat Diamond Bourse in Mumbai and arrested four people.
The DRI had recently held searches at BDB following a tip-off, and intercepted consignments of “low quality” rough diamonds with a declared value of ₹156 crore.
Cut-and-polish traders in BDB had allegedly imported rough diamonds from Hong Kong at highly inflated prices to transfer black money abroad.
A statement from the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council said the investigations of the DRI had exposed the ₹3,000-crore scam. “It is unfortunate that a group of people who are not members of GJEPC have used gem and jewellery products as a conduit for money laundering,” it said. “We have sensitised the government on large over-valuation of several imports from Hong Kong, along with proof. In fact, persons from GJEPC acted as whistle-blowers in uncovering the malpractice.”
The government had recently imposed an import duty of 0.25 per cent on rough diamonds.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.