Arihant Jewellery owner held

For alleged involvement in smuggling gold, sister questioned

On Tuesday, Mumbai airport custom’s air intelligence unit (AIU) arrested the owner of Arihant Jewellers at Zaveri Bazaar, Gaurav Jain, for allegedly being involved in gold smuggling.

The AIU had on December 7 held a passenger, Raj Vasant Jadhav, for trying to smuggle 7kg gold worth Rs 1.61 crore into the city. He had arrived from Paris by a Jet Airways flight and

was apprehended by the officials for suspicious behaviour. Jadhav was taken into custody for 15 days, which was later extended for two more weeks

after the department produced tangible evidence against him recovered during investigation. It was during the probe that Jadhav revealed Jain’s role in gold smuggling, sources said.According to sources, during interrogating, Jadhav confessed that he was involved in gold smuggling on the orders of Gaurav Jain of Arihant Jewellers. A top official from AIU, while talking to The Asian Age said that during questioning Jadhav had admitted to having smuggled gold around 15-20 times this year.

Confirming this, the additional commissioner of AIU Milind Lanjewar said, “Jadhav had admitted that the gold was smuggled from Paris to be delivered to Jain.” He was arrested under Section 104 of the Customs Act, 1962.

The department had searched five different premises in the city in order to locate Jain and his sister Apeksha Jain. An official said under the condition of anonymity that Jain’s sister, an advocate, too was a suspect because her business card was found in Jadhav’s belongings.

As per the provision of the Act, three summons were issued to both siblings to appear before the department and they finally approached the department on Tuesday. Their statements were duly recorded and Jain was taken into custody. Commenting on this, Mr Lanjewar said, “On Tuesday, the department recorded Jain’s statement and that of his sister and later arrested him.”

The jewellery shop, which had been sealed under panchanama around 10 days ago, was raided by the AIU officers on Tuesday and several documents were confiscated from it for further analysis.