Another accused arrested SEEPZ case

December 1: SEEPZ Customs have arrested another accused in the case of smuggling of cut and polished diamonds from a unit in SEEPZ. The main accused and managing director of the unit, M/S Neel Kamal Jewellery Exports, Bhupendra Kapadia, was arrested on November 7. The smuggled diamonds worth Rs 10 crore and gold worth Rs 39 lakh had been allegedly siphoned out of the unit and sold locally. The other accused arrested recently is one Deepak Kothari, an alleged ally of Kapadia.

Kapadia, a US passport holder, was sought to be questioned by the Brian Heath, the US vice counsul, recently. Heath had invited a contempt notice from a local magistrate’s court for his remark that it was not the business of the court to ask why he needed to talk to Kapadia.

Kothari, a local dealer and exporter in diamonds, was allegedly one of the recipients of the smuggled diamonds from Neel Kamal, which he sold locally and paid Kapadia accordingly. Goods from SEEPZ units cannot be sold locally as these are exclusively export oriented units.

Customs have also discovered that Kapadia had not received remittances for exports made by him to various parties in the US even six months after the exports. The figure, a whopping Rs 54 crore!. Investigations also revelaed that he had taken packing credit and post shipment loans to the tune of Rs 11 crore.