Mumbai: Man tries to smuggle Rs 10 crore diamonds, held

MUMBAI: A 35-year-old man, Saleem Basha, was arrested at the city airport by customs officials while trying to smuggle diamonds worth Rs 10 crore to Dubai on Thursday. Airport customs are questioning Basha and suspect that he was involved in a hawala transaction. The air intelligence unit of Customs, acting on a tip-off, searched Basha’s baggage and found diamonds weighing 3,352 carats (670gm). During interrogation, Basha, who is from Tamil Nadu, told officials that he was offered 2,500 dirhams (nearly Rs 45,000) to carry the parcel, which he was supposed to hand over to one Shatik Ali Shaikh in Dubai. Basha has said that he was given the parcel by an unidentified man.Till the time of going to the press, officials had assessed nine of the 25 diamond packets found on Basha. The diamonds found in the nine packets are worth Rs 1.6 crore, said an official, adding that the gems collectively are likely to cost Rs 10 crore.