₹200 crore duty evasion scam unearthed SurSEZ unit, 2 held

Surat: Within four days of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) uncovering a Rs 2,800 crore money laundering racket, the customs department exposed another scam worth Rs 200 crore in the Surat Special Economic Zone (SurSEZ) on Friday. Two individuals, Aashish Jayraj Bheda and Jayraj Ramniklal Bheda, who operate a diamond polishing unit in SurSEZ and engage in import-export business, were arrested and presented in a local court before being sent to judicial custody.
The revelation of this scam has raised concerns about the operations of units within SurSEZ, as there have been investigations into financial irregularities in the past.The Special Investigation and Intelligence Branch (SIIB) of the customs department conducted an inquiry at the unit, where they discovered irregularities, with most transactions being conducted online. The customs officials suspect that the accused undervalued their products to evade customs duty, resulting in a duty evasion of approximately Rs 200 crore.
This incident follows the ED’s searches on Jul 8 in four cities of Gujarat and Maharashtra as part of a Rs 2,800 crore money laundering fraud linked to Paplaj Foreign Trade LLP, a Surat-based jewellery firm. The searches were conducted under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) at the premises of Paplaj Foreign Trade LLP, its partners Somabhai Sunderbhai Meena and Ojaskumar Mohanlal Naik, and at locations of the firm's associates in Surat, Vadodara, Mumbai, and Pune.
The investigation revealed that Paplaj Foreign Trade LLP had overvalued the import of diamonds and remitted Rs 2,800 crore between Jul 2023 and March.