Hardik Pandya’s luxury watches seized by customs dept; cricketer issues clarification

Two of Indian international cricketer Hardik Pandya’s watches, reportedly worth around Rs 5 crore, were seized by the customs department at the Mumbai airport. He surrendered the watches at the airport after landing from Dubai.
Pandya, who was returning home with other Indian players after India lost the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup group stage, was allegedly not able to show the invoices for the watches. The cricketer who also plays for the Reliance Industries-owned IPL team Mumbai Indians has issued a clarification regarding the same.

“Early on Monday morning, 15th November, on my arrival from Dubai, after picking up my luggage, I voluntarily went to Mumbai airport customs counter to declare the items brought by me and pay the requisite customs duty. Wrong perceptions have been floating around on social media regarding my declaration to customs at Mumbai airport, and I would like to clarify about what transpired,” the statement posted on Pandya’s official Twitter account read.

In this clarification, Pandya said that the watch costs Rs 1.5 crore and not Rs 5 crore, as widely reported. He added that the customs department sought purchase documents all of which were submitted and the department is doing proper valuation for duty. It further underscored that the allegations against Pandya are “totally unfounded.”

This, however, is not the first time the Pandyas have hit a rough spot with the customs department. His brother and cricketer Krunal Pandya was detained at the Mumbai airport for not declaring four luxury watches to the customs last year. Krunal had claimed that he did not know about the declaration procedure and customs duty.

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