Hardik Pandya’s watches worth Rs 5 crore seized at airport by customs officials

The customs officials found Hardik Pandya in possession of two luxury watches worth Rs 5 crores after the all-rounder arrived in India from UAE, where ICC T20 World Cup 2021 took place.

File image (Source: Twitter)

Team India all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who has been struggling with his form for quite some time, has found himself in trouble as his two watches worth 5 crores have been confiscated by the customs department on his arrival in India late on Sunday (November 14) night.

As per  ANI, the incident took place when Team India players were returning home from UAE after a disappointing show in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021.

However, after arriving at the airport, the customs officials found Hardik in possession of two luxury watches worth Rs 5 crores. The Mumbai Indians’ all-rounder allegedly did not have invoices for the watches, nor had he declared these watches as customs items. As a consequence, the customs officials confiscated his watches.

Notably, Hardik owns some of the most expensive watches in the world and his watch collection even includes the Patek Philippe Nautilus Platinum 5711 - which costs over Rs 5 crore.

According to GQ India, the watch sports 32 baguette-cut emeralds and is entirely forged in platinum. The 5711 has emeralds serving as hour markers and gets a self-winding automatic movement.

Earlier in August, a month before the second leg of the IPL 2021, Hardik had taken to Instagram to post a series of pics, which also had a picture of the luxurious watch.

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A post shared by Hardik Himanshu Pandya (@hardikpandya93)

Interestingly, last year, elder brother of Hardik, Krunal Pandya was detained at Mumbai Airport while returning from Dubai, over suspicion of being in possession of undisclosed gold and other valuables. Krunal was found in possession of Gold worth INR 1 crore and some undisclosed luxury watches.

The case was handed over to the Airport Customs as the case was a non-recurring type, according to the DRI officials.

Meanwhile, Hardik has not been included in the Team India squad for the upcoming three-match T20I series against New Zealand, which is set to commence from November 17.

It is worth mentioning that Pandya was a complete flop in the recently concluded T20 World Cup as he managed to score only 69 runs.