Mumbai: Gujarat Businessman Arrested for ₹44 Crore Customs Duty Evasion in Walnut Import Scam

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has arrested a 24-year-old businessman from Gujarat for allegedly evading customs duty worth around ₹44 crore by under-invoicing walnut imports. The walnuts were imported from Chile, and the DRI is currently conducting a detailed investigation into the matter.

The arrested accused has been identified as Sneh Deepakbhai Kakadia (24), a resident of Surat, Gujarat. He runs a firm named Angel Enterprises, which is registered in Surat.

According to the DRI investigation, Kakadia under-declared the value of imported goods to evade customs duties. During the probe, officials discovered that the accused had imported 3,610 metric tonnes of walnuts by showing invoices that were 50% to 70% lower than the actual prices charged by the Chilean supplier.

The DRI suspects that the remaining payment was made in cash through hawala channels. While the official documents showed reduced invoice amounts, the difference was allegedly remitted to the supplier in Chile via informal money transfer networks.

The modus operandi involved importing walnuts from Chile and first routing them to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). There, the original invoices were altered to show reduced values. With the help of a UAE-based company, new undervalued invoices were generated. The containers were then shipped to India, where customs duties were levied based on the undervalued invoices—resulting in significant revenue loss to the central government.

The DRI is actively pursuing leads to identify other individuals and entities involved in this suspected international hawala and customs fraud network.