A court in the southern Chinese port city of Shenzhen on Wednesday handed down lighter-than-expected sentences for the 22 Indian traders, detained on diamond smuggling charges since January 2010, bringing relief to their family members who have had to wait almost two years for the verdict.
Thirteen traders will be deported from China in the coming week, while nine others were given jail terms of between three and six years.
The traders, from Gujarat and Mumbai, were detained following a raid in Shenzhen, and were accused by local prosecutors of evading $ 7.3 million in customs duties.
Commercial crimes
Wednesday's verdict was welcomed by Indian officials and some of the family members, seen as lighter than what many expected a day after a Chinese court, in nearby Guangzhou, sentenced Australian national Matthew Ng to 13 years in jail on embezzlement charges, part of trend, according to officials, of increasingly harsh sentences on foreign businessmen involved in commercial crimes.
The longest sentence handed by the Shenzhen court was six years, to Rajesh Kumar Jain. Among the 13 traders who will be deported in the coming week, one trader, Jigar Prafulchandra Mehta, was fined 1 million Yuan (Rs. 81.2 lakh) — the highest penalty imposed on the group.
Two others were also fined: Dhaval Vikulkumar Patel, among six traders handed three-year sentences ending on July 1, 2013, was fined 500,000 Yuan (Rs. 40.6 lakh), and Soni Amitkumar Arunkumar, one of two traders handed a five-year sentence, was fined 300,000 Yuan (Rs. 24.3 lakh).
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi hailed the verdict on Wednesday, saying in a statement he was “thankful to the Chinese government for expediting the trial and ensuring that judgment is delivered.” Mr. Modi raised the case during his visit to China last month, when he met Politburo member Wang Gang.
However, the judgment was, in reality, far from expeditious and long in the works before Mr. Modi landed in Beijing – its announcement only followed the conclusion of a long-drawn investigation into a smuggling racket that involved other foreign nationals and Hong Kong businessmen.
The final judgement eventually came after more than two years of an uncertain wait for the traders' families, during which a number of high-level diplomatic representations made by the Indian government, both from New Delhi and at the Indian embassy in Beijing, appeared to have little effect on the Shenzhen prosecutors pursuing the case.
External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna raised the issue as early as in April 2010 during a visit to Beijing. In November last year, then Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao further pressed Beijing to help expedite the case, which was also subsequently raised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with his Chinese counterpart.
The two-year wait posed many difficulties for the family members of the traders, many of whom have since left China for Gujarat facing financial strains as they waited for investigations to be completed. In earlier interviews with The Hindu, family members expressed regular frustration at the handling of the case by the local authorities, being given little information over the status of investigation and only allowed few visits to the Shenzhen detention centre – difficulties that are routinely faced by Chinese citizens in a country with an opaque judicial system.
Over the past two years, family members have also expressed concern over the traders' health, with many of them – vegetarians and Jains – struggling to cope with life in the detention centre.
Visits granted to family members – around half a dozen over the past year and a half, according to some relatives – as well as consular access provided to diplomats at the Indian Consulate in Guangzhou came after Indian officials in Beijing pressed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sources said. Indian Ambassador to China S. Jaishankar also visited the traders on November 16. Indian officials pointed out that visits by family members were rarely granted even to detained Chinese citizens, with local authorities agreeing to make an exception in this case.
Consular assistance
New Delhi Special Correspondent reports:
The Foreign Office assured all help to the 13 who will be deported from China to India in 15 days and highlighted its efforts to counsel them during their time in jail. India's Consul General in Guangzhou will meet the Court authorities on Thursday to get more information about the deportation process.
“We have noted the judgment by a Court in Shenzhen on 22 Indian nationals on charges of diamond smuggling and money laundering; 13 of them will be deported…Earlier, Indian consular officials had visited them on more than 10 occasions and had facilitated family visits more than five times. All assistance had been rendered to ensure their welfare,'' said a Foreign Office release.
