The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has made yet another arrest in connection with the Mumbai antique smuggling case. A Delhi-based courier agent was nabbed on Tuesday, making him the third arrest in the case
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The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has made yet another arrest in connection with the Mumbai antique smuggling case. A Delhi-based courier agent was nabbed on Tuesday, making him the third arrest in the case.
According to a report in The Hindustan Times, the arrested person has been identified as Pushpender Singh (35). “We searched Singh's premises and recorded his statement on Tuesday. He confessed that he used the IEC (Import Export Code) of his firms to help Udit Jain and Vijay Nanda smuggle antiques to Hong Kong and Taiwan. He has also admitted mis-declaring them as handicrafts and artificial rings to hoodwink the authorities,” a DRI officer was quoted as saying in the report. Singh has been sent to judicial custody.
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Close to a month after arresting smuggler Vijay Nanda, kingpin of the international syndicate smuggling ancient Indian artefacts out of the country, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) made its second big arrest when it held sculptor Udit Jain, Nanda's most trusted business associate and alleged member of the infamous Deenadhayalan smuggling syndicate a few days back.
“Jain, a sculptor by profession having his own unit in Noida, was supplying artefacts to Nanda and many other Indian and global smugglers since many years. He was instrumental in procuring sculptures from various temples across India by using his contacts,” said a DRI official.
Earlier in February, the DRI made its biggest catch in the case. After a decade of India being robbed of its rare and ancient sculptures and artefacts worth billions from temples and sites, the DRI Mumbai, finally managed to nab Indian-origin US businessman Vijay Nanda from South Mumbai.
Read Story: Antique smuggling racket: Key idol smuggler held in police raid
Highly-placed sources in the DRI told mid-day that Nanda, who the agency suspects smuggled out and sold over 250 precious antiques and artefacts worth billions of rupees across the world in the last decade, was on several Indian agencies' radar since long.
Nanda was living in the US for the last 30 years as a furniture and garment merchant. He set a company ‘Sangam Importer' in New York in 2010 and sold old furniture from across the world. He also set up another company ‘Sage Mercantile', with both acting as fronts for his criminal activities.
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