Mumbai police arrests 2 Chinese nationals for stealing, swapping diamonds with fakes

The theft happened at the India International Jewellery Show held in Mumbai

The Mumbai Police, in association with Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), arrested two Chinese citizens on Monday evening for allegedly stealing diamonds worth lakhs of rupees. 

The burglary occurred at a shop displaying precious gemstones at the India International Jewellery Show (IIJS), one of the world's largest and most prestigious shows, held at the National Standard Engineering (NSE) Exhibition Centre in Mumbai's Goregaon area.

The Chinese duo had cleared their immigrations at the Mumbai Airport, and they were on the run.

On receiving a complaint from the shop owners, the organisers verified with the closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera in the vicinity and lodged a first information report (FIR) at the local police station at Goregaon. The complaint, shared with the CISF office guarding the show, was later sent to the Mumbai airport police.

A senior official of the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) confirmed the development.

Security for this exhibition was being provided by CISF (western sector). A telephonic information was received from CISF officials supervising the security that the theft had taken place.

Further, it was informed that upon scrutiny of the CCTV footage, two Chinese nationals namely Jiang Changqing and Deng Xiaobo are the suspects. Therefore, a request was made to the Mumbai Airport to look out for these suspects if they come to the airport to take a flight.

The CISF Mumbai Airport team swung into action and the same information was shared with immigration officials, who after checking the data, informed that they have already cleared immigration. Both the Chinese passengers were travelling by Air India flight number Ai-314 (scheduled departure at 5.45 pm) from Mumbai to Osaka.

However, they were caught and brought back to immigration by CISF personnel. The police also arrived at the airport at about 7 pm and after completing the legal/offloading formalities, they were taken to police station for further interrogation. 

A departure pax namely Bharath Jain travelling to Bengaluru by Go Air flight G8-396 was caught carrying approximately 2.3 kilograms of gold in his hand baggage. The message has been passed to IT officials and ASG Bangaluru for further necessary action, the official said.