Delhi resident held with diamonds worth Rs 4.33 crore at Bagdogra airport
Telegraph | 11 February 2026
The Siliguri unit of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested a man on Monday and seized diamonds worth more than ₹4 crore from him.
Dipak Kumar Mahasuklal Mehta, a 50-year-old resident of west Delhi, was intercepted at the Bagdogra airport.
According to DRI officials, Mehta had travelled to Kathmandu, Nepal, by air and later flew to Bhadrapur, which is near the India-Nepal border.
He entered India by road via Panitanki and reached Bagdogra, from where he was planning to board a Delhi-bound flight on Monday evening.
A DRI source said that, acting on specific intelligence inputs that a passenger would be carrying diamonds illegally from Bagdogra to Delhi, the officers intercepted Mehta at the airport before boarding.
When questioned, Mehta denied carrying any diamonds. He was subsequently taken to the DRI office in Siliguri for further examination.
During a thorough search of his luggage, the officials recovered a small pouch containing tiny diamond pieces weighing approximately 163 grams.
The seized items were examined by an expert, who confirmed that they were genuine natural diamonds, with an estimated value of around ₹4.33 crore. When Mehta failed to produce any valid documents authorising possession or transportation of such a large quantity of diamonds, he was arrested.
Preliminary investigations revealed that the diamonds were procured from Bhadrapur in Nepal and were being smuggled into India, with Delhi as the intended destination.
Ratan Banik, the special public prosecutor representing the DRI, described the seizure as rare.
“While there have been several cases of smugglers being caught with gold bars and other contraband items, this is the first instance in recent times where a person has been arrested for illegally carrying a large quantity of diamonds,” Banik said.
He added that the case showed the involvement of a smuggling racket operating through the India–Nepal border.
On Tuesday, a court here remanded Mehta in judicial custody for two weeks.