Indian cricketer Krunal Pandya and his wife Pankhuri Sharma were detained at the Terminal 2 of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai on Thursday evening by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) for carrying an undisclosed high-end watches and gold.
The couple was detained on their arrival from Dubai, where they had gone for the recently-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL). DRI sources have confirmed that the exact valuation of the undisclosed gold and other valuables is yet to be done but it might be less than INR 1 crore.
Cricketer Krunal Pandya stopped by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) at the Mumbai International Airport over suspicion of being in possession of undisclosed gold and other valuables, while returning from UAE: DRI sources pic.twitter.com/9Yk82coBgz
— ANI (@ANI) November 12, 2020
According to a local daily, when asked if Krunal would have to pay a fine, the DRI officer said, “That part would be handled by Customs. Normally, they would first recover Customs duty. DRI has handed over the case to Customs after the detection and the team has withdrawn from the airport.”
The officer added: “The value of the articles is likely to be less than Rs one crore. There would be a valuation done to arrive at the correct value.”
In IPL 2020, Krunal was a part of team Mumbai Indians (MI) who won their record title by defeating the first time-finalists Delhi Capitals (DC) at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday (November 10).
Krunal hit the winning run in the final. Overall, in the 2020 edition of IPL, he scored 109 runs at a poor average of 18.16 and picked only 6 wickets with 2/26 being his best.
