SURAT (Commodity Online): After Surat diamond traders faced a humiliating arrest and subsequent inquiry in China over alleged smuggling of diamonds, this week a diamond trader’s family from Surat was robbed of diamond worth crores at gun point in Antwerp.

Family members, including wife and children of Pankaj Maldar, who owns leading diamond company Karp Impex NV, were taken hostage at their residence in Antwerp by a gun-wielding gang this week. Following an 18-hour ordeal, the family was released after they agreed to hand over a huge stock of diamonds worth crores of rupees.

This is one of the biggest ever diamond robberies in Antwerp targeting an Indian diamond company owner.

A diamond traders’ body will make a representation before Prince Philippe, crown prince of Belgium, who is scheduled to visit India on March 25.

The mafia had come with a complete list of diamond stocks to Maldar’s office in Antwerp. Antwerp was considered one of the safest places on earth. This is for the first time that an Indian diamantaire has been targeted by robbers.

Besides Antwerp, the Rs 1,500-crore Karp Impex has its presence in centres like Hong Kong, China, Bangkok and Dubai.

The gunmen, who were apparently wearing uniforms to make them look like security guards or even police, knocked on the front door of the villa of Maldar in the exclusive suburb of Wilrijk in Antwerp.



The gunmen then rushed in, held the family hostage and waited for Maldar, a senior partner at Karp Impex NV, a large diamond company.

When he arrived, the shocked dealer was given an option: ‘Come back with the diamonds within an hour or we will blow up your family with bombs’.

There is confusion about the gunmen’s ethnic origins. One report said they were of Turkish origin; another said they seemed to speak Italian. The number of gunmen was also put at five in one account.

The Indian origin population in Belgium numbers about 14,000, of whom 5,000, belonging to 600 families, are in the diamond trade. Some years ago, Jewish traders made up 80 per cent of the business, with Indians accounting for 20 per cent. It is understood those proportions have now reversed.

Although the incident was played out over 20 hours on Friday, according to a police spokesman, the authorities were not informed until Saturday. The audacious heist has now developed into one of the biggest police inquiries in Belgium for some years.

Diamonds are crucial to Belgium’s economy and to the gems trade in Surat and Mumbai, with which the Indian traders, mostly of Gujarati origin, have close links.

The diamond trading quarter of Antwerp is well protected but this is not always the case with the homes of the traders, though some do tend to employ private guards.

A few months ago, around 30 diamond traders from Surat were detained by Chinese police for smuggling in the sparklers via Hong Kong.

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