Wanted for ‘defrauding jeweller of ornaments worth Rs 12.77 crore', Mumbai-based trader held in Ahmedabad
The Ahmedabad Crime Branch arrested Birju Salla from a five-star hotel in the city.
In 2017, Salla was nabbed after he allegedly put a hijack threat note inside a Jet Airways plane following which the flight had to make an emergency landing in Ahmedabad.
Though a special NIA court in Ahmedabad had sentenced Salla to life imprisonment, he was granted bail by the Gujarat High Court in 2023 for want of evidence.
In the latest case, Salla was booked by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in Mumbai, based on the complaint of a jeweller, Shailesh Jain.
According to the FIR lodged at Mumbai's L T Marg police station, in November 2024, Salla had taken 7,214 grams of gold worth Rs 5.55 lakh along with 32,915 grams of silver and precious diamonds worth Rs 8.15 crore from Jain, a jeweller based in Zaveri Bazar, on the pretext of selling it to a customer, who wanted 'antique and handmade jewellery'.
In his FIR, Jain stated that Salla promised to pay him the money based on the quantities sold, and return the rest of the jewellery.
Jain told police that though Salla returned some of the jewellery, he has been 'evading' the complainant even as he continues to allegedly possess 5,972 grams of gold and 18,965 grams of silver and some diamond jewellery.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Detection of Crime Branch, Ahmedabad City, Ajit Rajiaan told The Indian Express that Salla is currently being questioned by the Crime Branch in Ahmedabad. 'He has a history of involvement in bomb and hijack threats, so we are also probing him on that. He is wanted in a Ponzi scam in Maharashtra,' the DCP added.
Salla was convicted and awarded life imprisonment by an NIA court, under the Anti-Hijacking Act, 2016, in July 2019 for allegedly keeping a hijack threat note in a Jet Airways flight on October 30, 2017.
In August 2023, a Division Bench of the Gujarat HC, comprising Justice A S Supehia and Justice M R Mengdey, had acquitted Salla for lack of evidence linking him to the hijack note.
The Jet Airways flight from Mumbai to Delhi had made an emergency landing at the Ahmedabad airport after a note was found that stated that there were 'hijackers on board the flight and the aircraft should be flown straight to PoK'.
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