30 yrs on, CA firm owner convicted in foreign currency smuggling case

A senior chartered accountant from Ahmedabad was sentenced to 6 months in prison and fined Rs 2.5 lakh for trying to smuggle US dollars worth Rs 46 lakh - almost 30 years after the trial had begun. 

Ashutosh Nanavaty and co-accused Chandrakant Amin had been arrested by the Customs in March 1985 at Mumbai airport, from where they were suppose to transport the money to USA via Hong Kong. 

Amill owner from Ahmedabad, Mrugesh Harivallabhdas, had also been arrested after his name cropped up during investigations. 

While Amin and Harivallabhdas pleaded guilty at the time of the crime and underwent prison terms of six months each, Nanavaty had claimed innocence and the trial was conducted against him alone. 

After the trial ended on January 31, 2014, a magistrate's court convicted Nanavaty and sentenced him to six months' imprisonment besides fining him. 

He, however, will not go to jail as he had already served six months in police custody at the time of his arrest in 1985. 

Harivallabhdas had confessed that the three of them had arrived in Mumbai from Ahmedabad on the morning of March 19, 1985. 

After spending a few hours in the city, they went to the airport at 4.30 pm, as Nanavaty and Amin were suppose to transport the currency notes to USA on an evening flight. 

Harivallabhdas had told Custom officers that he had checked in their baggage for the Air India flight and then himself left for Santacruz Airport to take a flight to Ahmedabad. 

He had admitted that the seized foreign exchange belonged to him and that he had wanted to send it to arelative in US.