Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan along with his team, on Friday night, arrived at the Mumbai airport after attending Sharjah Book Fair in the United Arab Emirates. Post his arrival, reports claiming he was stopped by customs officers at the airport for carrying expensive watches started doing the rounds. It was reported that SRK paid a heavy fine of Rs. 6.83 lakh after officers evaluated the value of items in his bag costs around Rs 17.86 lakhs. However, a senior customs officer has rubbished all such reports and revealed that the actor paid duty only for goods he and his team were carrying.
Speaking to ETimes, the officer clarified, “Shah Rukh Khan and his team were asked to pay duty for goods they were carrying. There was no penalty or interception as is being reported by the media. Everything being said on social media with regards to this case is a factual mismatch.” The customs officer added, “Whenever there is a case of payment of duties or any other fees the passengers from GA Terminal are escorted to T2, because that is where the personnel and facilities are located for such scenarios. These facilities have not been extended to the GA terminal because it doesn't make sense to do that for 10-12 people who travel from there." ALSO READ: Shah Rukh Khan Opens Up About Dealing With Son Aryan Khan’s Arrest; Says, ‘Good Will Always Outweigh The Bad’
Further, the customs expert gave a detailed account of the incident and mentioned that the 57-year-old actor and his team arrived at the GA terminal at around 12.30 pm. Unlike the T2, where there are different colour-coded channels for different types of passengers and their duty-related screenings, the GA terminal has no separate classifications. So the entire team was carrying 6-7 bags which were screened by security and they had several watch winders (specialised cases used for luxury watches) and one Apple watch, which they didn't have receipts for, as they declared these were gifts. “We searched for the value of these items on the internet and we determined everything put together was worth Rs 17.86 lakhs,” he was quoted saying.
Earlier, it was reported that during the scanning of SRK and his teams’ bags, customs officials found expensive watches from international brands like Espirit, Babun & Zurbk, and Apple.
Meanwhile, on the work front, Shah Rukh Khan is making his comeback with the upcoming actioner ‘Pathaan’ opposite Deepika Padukone. The movie has been directed by Siddharth Anand and also stars John Abraham.