Indian employee, others indicted for smuggling diamonds into Vietnam

Shaileshkumar Hareshbhai Prajapati will go on trial for smuggling at the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court on July 30. Prosecutors indicted three others alongside him: Nguyen Thi Linh, 54, for smuggling and offering bribes; Ly Thi Ngoc Bich, 47, for fraud; and Bich's older sister, Ly Thi Ngoc Nga, 49, for brokering bribery. The operation traces to Shah Hemantkumar Sureshkumar, an Indian businessman known as Sunny who runs a firm called Nsh & Co. and directed Prajapati, his employee, to bring the diamonds in. Shah's case has been separated from the trial because authorities have not yet received the results of a mutual legal assistance request to confirm his identity and background. Shah traveled to Vietnam in early 2023 and agreed with Linh to move diamonds from India for illegal sale. From August 2023 he had Prajapati carry the stones straight to Ho Chi Minh City without declaring them. The pair found buyers over social media and required deposits upfront, and Linh either handed the diamonds over in person or shipped them to other provinces by bus freight. Sales money ran through accounts Linh controlled. She kept a 0.1% commission on each shipment and sent the rest to Shah, while Prajapati earned about VND6 million (US$230) a month. Prajapati entered Vietnam five times between August 2023 and October 2024, carrying 1,477 diamonds in all. The first four trips brought in 762 stones that investigators could trace only through his phone data, and with none of them recovered, prosecutors had no basis to value them or file charges. The fifth trip ended at the airport. Prajapati flew in from India on a VietJet service on Oct. 23, 2024, and walked through the green "nothing to declare" channel at Tan Son Nhat. Officers screening his suitcase found 715 diamonds split into 10 packets among his clothes, along with grading papers from the International Gemological Institute. An appraisal put their value above VND6.84 billion ($260,000) and identified 503 as natural and 212 as synthetic, lab-grown CVD stones. Diamonds seized by authorities from a ring that smuggled them from India to Ho Chi Minh City. Photo courtesy of the police Prosecutors say Prajapati cleared about VND72 million ($2,740) from the scheme and Linh about VND50 million ($1,900). His arrest set off a second scheme. Police summoned Linh for questioning, but she fled her home and turned to Nga to get Prajapati out on bail or sent back to India and to find a lawyer who could win a lighter sentence. Nga knew Linh wanted to buy her way out of the case and knew she could not arrange it, but she brought in her younger sister, Bich, anyway. Bich told Linh she could reach officials with the power to intervene and free Prajapati or cut both defendants' criminal liability, according to the indictment. Linh gave her VND1.2 billion ($45,600). Bich spent VND150 million ($5,700) on a lawyer, hid the rest at her home, and did nothing else she had promised. Police recovered the cash when they searched the house. Prosecutors charged her with fraud rather than bribery because she kept the money instead of passing it to any official. Subsidiary of VnExpress License number: 71/GP-CBC, Ministry of Information andCommunications, September 22, 2021 Editor-in-Chief: Pham Van Hieu Email: [email protected]: 028 7300 9999 - Ext 8556 10th floor, Block A FPT Tower, 10 Pham Van Bach, Cau Giay Ward, Hanoi