Customs officials booked for facilitating exports of fake jewellery: CBI

New Delhi, Sep 3 (PTI) The CBI has booked four customs officials for allegedly facilitating exports of fake gold jewellery valued at Rs 487 crore from the Chennai airport to claim customs duty refund and receiving Rs 6.99 crore as a bribe for it, officials said on Wednesday.

"Enquiry conducted revealed that suspected exporters in connivance with Customs officials posted at Air Cargo Complex fraudulently exported fake jewellery in lieu of imported gold through designated agencies," the CBI FIR has alleged.

It has said that customs officials allegedly cleared the fake jewellery as genuine gold after obtaining bribes.

"The gold bullions imported (from Gulf countries) were sold in the domestic market. In order to avail benefit of refund of Custom duty on imported gold, suspected jewellers exported fake jewellery," the CBI has alleged.

The scam was busted in 2022, when the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) intercepted one such consignment.

In its FIR lodged on the basis of a complaint from the DRI, the CBI has alleged that Superintendent J Suresh Kumar facilitated 7,38,981.8 grams of fake jewellery, which were made of copper and were gold plated, valued at Rs 299.52 crore. Superintendent Alok Shukla facilitated fake jewellery valued at Rs 38.87 crore and appraiser N Samuel Deepak Avinash allowed the export of fake jewellery valued at more than Rs 149 crore.

The DRI has alleged that according to one of the exporters questioned in the case, officials were allegedly paid Rs 50 per gram of fake jewellery cleared by them for exports, which comes to about Rs 5.99 crore.

All these officials, along with Customs Superintendent P Thulasi Ram, have been booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Four exporters and jewellers -- Deepak Siroya, Santosh Kothari, Sunil Parmar and Sunil Sharma -- and Customs House Agent A Mariappan have also been named in the FIR as accused. PTI ABS RC