Sleuths hit Boom: 338-kg diamonds, 3 friends, and missing crores

The story of this trio of diamond lovers could be straight out of Kaizad Gustad’s Boom.In the forthcoming movie, three models are on th...

The story of this trio of diamond lovers could be straight out of Kaizad Gustad’s Boom.

In the forthcoming movie, three models are on the run with stolen diamonds. In real life, a probe by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) — across Mumbai and Surat — has found a huge cache of diamonds imported by three men related to each other. The catch is that the traders cannot explain where the diamonds went.

The group of three traders sent more than Rs 100 crore out of the country through one bank to pay for imported diamonds. But nobody can tell the DRI who bought the diamonds subsequently. The so-called buyers are not at the addresses given by the three diamond merchants.

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The trio — Gautam Chunilal Jain, Anil Bhavarlal Jain and Uttam Chand Jain — are in judicial custody after the DRI arrested them in the first week of July. So far, the investigation has uncovered some 28 accounts in Bharat Overseas Bank operated by the three. Another 19 accounts in the State Bank of Hyderabad, Sion, are also being examined.

The DRI has been investigating imports of rough diamonds as a means of illegal payments abroad. The modus operandi of the diamond syndicate — the network spreads from local trade hub Mumbai-Surat to Dubai and Hong Kong — is simple. All associates belong to the same cartel.

So, a Mumbai firm exports to Dubai or Hong Kong, the goods are cleared there, duty free, on the grounds that they will be re-exported. Then, a Surat firm imports them back to India, again duty-free, under our export promotion schemes.

But this time the value is inflated. The money collected here, from people who need to send it out illegally, is then used to make payments for these imports. All the operations carry a ‘commission’ just like in hawala.

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A clutch of consignments which came in May this year were detained and later valued by Customs and DRI with the help of the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council. Huge overvaluation has been confirmed.

Some consignments were not even claimed by the consignees. And when the DRI wrote to them, they simply said the goods didn’t belong to them.

In nine consignments of gems weighing over five lakh carats, the overvaluation identified by DRI is of Rs 40.48 crore. All the consignments belong to the three companies of the accused.

While Gautam Jain owns Rainbow Exportrade Pvt Ltd, Anil Jain runs Raj Gems Pvt Ltd and Uttam Chand Jain runs Sundrem Gems. Some consignments have also been detained in Surat and are being investigated.

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Besides the fact that the people they sold the diamonds to are untraceable, the threesome has been unable to explain bank transactions running into crores of rupees. These are all internal transfers from one account to the other in the same bank.

Gautam Jain, who rented an office in Panchratna building about nine months ago, was supposed to have imported 338 kg diamonds worth Rs 113 crore from Dubai and Hong Kong in three months. There are no documents to prove who he sold this treasure to.