Indian convicted for smuggling in Congo

An Indian diamond trader has been jailed for six months and fined a whopping $ 100,000 by a court in the Democratic Republic of Congo for smuggling eight kilograms of rough diamonds worth about $ 500,000.

Ajudiya Pravin Kumar, a diamond dealer for six years in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was sentenced by a Kinshasa court after officials found 42,000 carats of rough diamonds, worth about $ 500,000 in his luggage as he tried to leave for India on December 10.

The counsel representing the government at the tribunal, Me Ruffin Lukoo said the fine was imposed on Kumar apart from the prison term because he damaged the interest of the country.

The tribunal also ordered confiscation of the diamonds.

Kumar, who has been declared wanted by authorities, escaped stiffer punishment of 17 years imprisonment and a $ 500 million fine demanded by the state prosecutor.

The country’s police said Kumar had no permit to export the diamonds from DRC.

DRC, the world’s fourth-largest diamond producer by volume, has been trying to quell a civil conflict for more than two decades and much of them are traceable to resource control for precious metals such as diamond.