Former Sri Lanka cricketer Sanath Jayasuriya and two other persons have been charged with smuggling rotten betel nut to India, a news report said.
The directorate of revenue intelligence had seized betel nut worth millions of rupees in Nagpur following which Jayasuriya’s name came to light, as per a report in Dainik Bhaskar.
Jayasuriya was also called to Mumbai for questioning by the revenue intelligence team following which a letter has been sent to Sri Lanka government for a further inquiry.
According to the report, two other cricketers would be summoned by December 2.
The deputy director of revenue intelligence, Dilip Sivare said the seized betel nut was first brought from Indonesia to Sri Lanka from where it was smuggled to India. Dummy companies have also been formed in Sri Lanka to execute the smuggling, he added.
As per sources, the cricketers used their influence to obtain the license from the Sri Lanka government and formed dummy companies.
After the raid in Nagpur, it came to light that fake documents were prepared for the production. It was shown that the production was being done in Sri Lanka so as to evade import duty.
A non-bailable warrant has also been issued against Prakash Goyal, a businessman in Nagpur and his factory has been sealed.
Earlier, a Mumbai-based businessman Farookh Khurani was also caught in connection with the case.
There is a 108% import duty if betel nut is imported directly from Indonesia. This import duty is evaded if imports are done from Sri Lanka under the South Asia free trade area.
Indonesia’s rotten betel nut is the most beneficial for businessmen in India as they only have to pay 25% of the original value, it is then mixed with good quality betel nut.
Nagpur has become the centre of rotten and raw betel nut business as the city is easily accessible through rail and road.
Assam and Madhya Pradesh are other centres for such activities from where the smuggling and the export are done to other parts of the country.