'Watch costs Rs 1.5 crore, not Rs 5 cr': Hardik Pandya clarifies on Customs' 'seizure'

Cricketer Hardik Pandya was under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons on Tuesday after media reports said the Customs Department had seized two luxury wristwatches from him.

ANI reported the Customs Department seized the watches when Hardik arrived at Mumbai from the T20 World Cup in Dubai.

Reports claimed the watches were worth Rs 5 crore and were confiscated as Hardik did not have the purchase receipts.

Hardik issued a statement on his Twitter handle on Tuesday morning, detailing the sequence of events. Hardik said, after arriving from Dubai early on Monday, he “voluntarily went to Mumbai Airport Customs counter to declare the items brought… and pay the requisite customs duty”.

“I had voluntarily declared all the items that I'd lawfully purchased from Dubai and was ready to pay whatever duties that needed to be paid. As a matter of fact, the Customs Department had asked for all purchase documents which were submitted; however Customs is doing proper valuation for duty which I've already confirmed to pay,” Hardik said.

Hardik referred to a single watch in his statement and not two items as claimed in the reports. He said the "The cost of the watch is approximately ₹1.5 crore and not ₹5 crore as per the rumours floating around on social media. I'm a law-abiding citizen of the country and I respect all government agencies”.

Hardik declared, “All allegations against me of crossing any legal boundaries are totally unfounded.”