Two Chinese men steal Rs 34 lakh diamond, arrested at airport

Mumbai: Two Chinese nationals were arrested by Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel at the international airport on Monday after the police learnt that they had stolen a diamond worth Rs 34 lakh from a jewellery exhibition in Goregaon east and had replaced it with a fake diamond by sleight of hand. The duo had posed as diamond traders at the exhibition.

The duo was remanded in judicial custody till August 14 on Tuesday.

The Vanrai police, which is probing the case, alerted the airport officials that the two men, identified as Chiang Chang Kwing and Deng Xiabo, were missing after the stall owners of the exhibition reported theft.

Officials of Vanrai police said that the CISF officials arrested the two men when they were at the Immigration point and were bound to board a flight to Osaka in Japan on Monday night. The officials also said that the duo had arrived in the city on July 30, and visited an international jewellery exhibition at NESCO ground in Goregaon East on Monday afternoon.

While going through the stalls, the duo stopped at the complainant’s stall and engaged the sales executive in conversation, asking several questions. In the process they allegedly managed to steal a 5.43 carat diamond worth Rs 34 lakh on display and replaced it with a fake one. When the stall owner noticed he had been robbed, an interrogation revealed that the two Chinese nationals were now missing. The police surmised they might try and escape the country and alerted CISF officers at the airport.

Rajesh Pradhan, additional commissioner of police (North Region) said, “The duo had cleared immigration checks when the CISF personnel apprehended them. The police interrogated the accused for about seven hours with the help of an interpreter, and recovered the stolen diamond.”