The Noida Police has filed an FIR and initiated an inquiry into claims of illegal export of used smartphone chips disguised as scrap from India to China and Hong Kong. The case allegedly involves tax and customs duty fraud and evasion, and it is linked to a separate investigation being conducted by the Uttar Pradesh Police Special Task Force (STF) into the arrest of Chinese citizens who were found residing unlawfully in India last year.
Two Chinese nationals and a Noida-based company have been identified as defendants in the case, which was filed at the city's Sector 63 police station on the complaint of a sub-inspector of the UP Police's STF.
Mobile phone chips were exported in cargo boxes
According to the FIR obtained by PTI, the Chinese nationals named in the case are Liu Rui and Liu Yuan, and the Noida-based company is Roshan Electronic. The complainant in the FIR claimed that used mobile phone chips were being shipped in cargo boxes labelled as waste material and supplied under the free sample category under the non-commercial group.
“At least this firm alone must have exported goods worth Rs 2,000 crores, or 10,000-15,000 boxes and in each box, showing 15 to 50 kgs of goods as garbage, declaring them in the free sample category as non-commercial export,” the complainant stated. It further added that one kg comprises around 400 chips and in Indian terms, each chip is sold for Rs 3,000 to Rs 5,000 in markets of China and Hong Kong.
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UP STF probes the incident
The STF official also suspected re-routing of money through Hawala back to India with “re-import of the same goods” by big mobile companies alleging “this is a very big international organised gang”. A senior UP Police officer said that the STF had been probing this issue for over two months and now the registration of the FIR was recommended in this case.
The FIR has been lodged under the Indian Penal Code sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 467, 468, 471 (all related to forgery), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) and 120B (party to criminal conspiracy). It should be mentioned here that charges under the Foreigners Act, 1946 have also been invoked in the case. An officer of the Noida Police requesting anonymity said they have launched an investigation into the case.
(With PTI inputs)
