New Delhi, Dec 17 (IANS) In one of the largest such seizures, Customs officers here have seized a consignment of polished diamonds worth Rs 1.56 crore being sent out of India under false labelling, officials said on Friday.
According to the information, the parcel was detected by officers of Air Cargo Export Commissionerate on Thursday.
"When the officials examined a consignment declared as plastic hot fix with a value of Rs 5,000, they got suspicious. The said consignment was then opened. On examination, a packet containing pouches of cut and polished diamonds was found inside it. These diamonds were concealed very ingeniously in the packets of 'plastic hot fix'," said an official.
The official said that packet of diamonds also had the hot fix pasted on it to avoid detection.
The said consignment, worth Rs 1.56 crore, was meant to be sent to Hong Kong.
"This appears to be a unique case of sending diamonds out of the country through concealment in the parcels through air cargo. This is one of the largest seizures of polished diamonds at Air Cargo Export, Delhi in recent times. We have informed the other agencies regarding it," said the official.
A swarm of locusts on Wednesday and Thursday devastated crops in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadhra district, which shares borders with Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh. The pest has damaged crops in six states, leading to the Centre issuing a locust warning to 16 states.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Rs 1,500 crore for the relief and rehabilitation of people affected by Cyclone Amphan in West Bengal and Odisha, and assured the states of more support after conducting separate aerial surveys with chief ministers Mamata Banerjee and Naveen Patnaik on Friday.
US President Donald Trump tweeted that the US would donate ventilators to India in the fight against COVID-19. "We stand with India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during this pandemic,".
Fugitive liquor lord Vijay Mallya Thursday lost his application to appeal against extradition proceedings in the England Supreme Court, setting off the 28-day “mandatory period” for the 64-year-old businessman to be extradited to India on charges of fraud and money laundering related to unrecovered loans to his now non existent Kingfisher Airlines.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 270 billion dollar package to tackle the impact of coronavirus and weeks of lockdown. India would not be controlled by the virus, he said, also announcing "lockdown 4" after May 17 in a "completely different form", with new rules.
Heartfelt messages and prayers pour in for former Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, 87, who had undergone a heart surgery, had agreed to advise Punjab Government on ways to cope with the economic and humanitarian crisis in the wake of the pandemic. He complained of chest pain on Sunday evening and was rushed to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. (AIIMS)
