CBI files charge sheet against 7 accused for gold smuggling disguised as unsold exhibition items

New Delhi: The CBI probe into a gold smuggling racket allegedly run by a Delhi-based company linked to a noted jewellery group indicates that hundreds of kilograms of the precious yellow metal was brought in the country in 2018-19 by circular trading of jewellery shown as exported for exhibition purpose, officials said Thursday.

Four years after a suspect was intercepted at the Indira Gandhi International Airport with 50 kg of gold, the CBI has filed a charge sheet before a special court here against seven accused – the company Its My Name Pvt. Ltd, its director Rahul Gupta, Purnima Gupta, Amit Pal Singh, Gopal Gupta, Mohammad Nashruddin Khan and Vikram Bhasin – for allegedly misutilising Advance Authorisation Scheme and indulging in circular trading of gold.

The CBI said that one of the accused (Singh) made around 100 trips from Dubai during 2018-19 before he was intercepted at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in 2019 with alleged “illegal possession” of approximately 50 kilograms of gold jewellery.

The CBI had taken over the probe on March 20, 2020, with an FIR against the accused persons and the company.

Detailing the modus operandi of the racket, the agency alleged that gold jewellery was exported from India under the guise of a fake exhibition organised by a UAE-based firm controlled by Gupta.

“It was further alleged that certificates of such exports were obtained by the accused private company from the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC). It was also alleged that the same jewellery was then brought back into India as unsold Jewellery by submitting false declarations,” a CBI spokesperson said here.

He said the director (Gupta), in connivance with the public servant (Customs Superintendent Bhasin), misused the re-import provision of the scheme by bringing into India gold jewellery and declaring it as reimport(s) without obtaining required clearance.

The CBI investigation showed that the accused allegedly indulged in circular trading of gold by diverting the gold bullion to the grey market.

“It was further alleged that the UAE-based firm used to file customs declaration before UAE customs, in which gold jewellery used to be declared for export to India by personal carriage through the accused for a small quantity, i.e., less than a kilogram and simultaneously declare export to other countries of gold jewellery consignments of large quantity, i.e. around 50 kgs,” the spokesperson said.

The racket selected flights to India and other countries on the same day around the same time and from the same airport.

He also alleged that after emigration formalities in Dubai, gold jewellery of bigger quantity was handed over to a person going to India, he said.