CBI Cracks Down On ₹1,000-Crore Gold Export Fraud At Chennai Airport, 5 Customs Officials Booked

(MENAFN- Live Mint) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed an FIR in connection with a large-scale gold export scam at Chennai Airport Cargo, a fraud operation that allegedly cost the Union government over ₹1,000 crore annually from 2020 to 2022.

The case involves a suspected network of Customs officials and jewellery traders who exploited a government scheme for personal gain, IANS reported.

The accused and the scheme

The FIR names 13 individuals, including five Customs officials, a jewellery assessor, a customs agent, and four gold jewellery manufacturers.

Those booked include Customs Superintendents J Sureshkumar, Alok Shukla, and P Tulasiram, jewellery assessor N Samuel, customs agent Mariyappan, and manufacturers Deepak Siroya, Santosh Kothari, Sunil Parmar, and Sunil Sharma, the news agency said.

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Investigators believe the accused imported 24-carat gold bars by exploiting the Duty-Free Import Authorisation (DFIA) scheme, which allows it only under the condition that bars be converted into 22-carat ornaments for re-export.

However, instead of exporting genuine gold ornaments , the suspects allegedly shipped gold-plated brass and copper ornaments of low-quality jewellery. They then sold the genuine gold in the domestic market, pocketing the profits and causing substantial losses to the exchequer.

Investigation process

The racket was first detected in 2022 by the Central Revenue Intelligence (CRI) when it detected inconsistencies in shipping documents for consignments headed to Gulf countries. Physical inspections of the packages revealed fake or inferior ornaments instead of genuine gold ornaments.

Following the CRI's findings, a CBI investigation was recommended. However, the case faced delays due to the need for government sanctions to prosecute the Customs officials involved. The Union government recently granted this permission, enabling the agency to proceed with its investigation.

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Since the case was registered, CBI teams have conducted searches at the Chennai airport customs cargo office, the residences of the accused officials as well as jewellery shops and manufacturers' offices in Chennai . They have seized incriminating documents and inspected the XRF spectrometer used to test gold purity at the cargo terminal.

According to CBI sources, the case highlights systemic vulnerabilities in customs checks and misuse of trade facilitation schemes.

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Officials suggest that more individuals may be brought under the scanner as the investigation unfolds, and that this scam could emerge as one of the largest financial crimes linked to airport cargo operations in India, IANS reported.

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