24 June, Surat: An ingenious con artist named Raheel Manjani has been exposed as the brains behind a massive diamond fraud that has left the state of Gujarat reeling.
In this case, the fraudster was as crafty as those behind previous high-profile scams, exchanging 32 lakhs of rupees’ worth of jewels for packets of gutka, a popular chewing tobacco.
Rushabh Vora, a diamond seller in the Indian city of Surat, fell for the con artists’ brazen scheme. According to the police report filed by Vora, he was duped by Manjani, a jeweller impersonator who pretended to be in the business of helping people choose the perfect diamond.
Vora fell for the con artist’s claims that he would make a lot of money trading polished, round, natural diamonds with another merchant, and so he gave the con man Rs 32,04,442 in exchange for the stones.
Manjani picked up the diamonds from Vora’s workplace between February 13 and 21, this year, and carefully packaged them into three separate packages. He also gave Vora a symbolic payment of Rs 2 lakhs as a show of good faith to add to the appearance of legitimacy.
Vora, who was unaware of the impending disaster, fell further into a trap with each new exchange.
Vora became suspicious since the promised cash never materialised, and he eventually requested the return of his packages. It was decided that the wrapped packages would be opened in Manjani’s presence to keep up appearances.
The events that followed would rock Vora’s life and reveal the extent of the fraudster’s scheme.
The formerly brilliant diamonds had disappeared, replaced with sneaky packets of gutka, much to Vora’s chagrin. The shocking news knocked him for a loop. He had lost his valuable stones and more importantly, his faith in the dishonest trader.
With the help of another diamond merchant, it soon became painfully obvious that Manjani had methodically crafted a strategy to mislead and scam naive victims like Vora.
Authorities responded quickly after the tragic tragedy. Manjani has been charged with criminal breach of trust (Section 409) and cheating (Section 420) of the Indian Penal Code.
An exhaustive probe is presently under way to ascertain whether or not more merchants have fallen for Manjani’s intricate con.
The Manjani tragedy is a sobering reminder of the perilous nature of doing business in a world where dishonesty and treachery may assume unfathomable shapes.
As the police dive further into this web of treachery, the diamond business in Gujarat prepares itself in the hopes of preventing any more innocent people from falling prey to these brazen con artists.
Rough diamonds for polishing are valued around $11 billion per year for India. Eighty percent of these diamonds come from diamond mining businesses, while the remaining ten percent come from Antwerp, Belgium.
More than 80% of India’s yearly diamond exports of Rs 70,000 crore are produced in Surat.
The diamond business in Surat, India, is responsible for 75% of the sparkle in diamonds sold throughout the globe.
Surat, India, has become the epicentre of India’s diamond polishing sector, which employs over 1.5 million people and accounts for 54% of the country’s total gem and jewellery exports. This has solidified India’s position as the world’s biggest supplier of cut and polished diamonds.
