Shah Rukh Khan and his team comprising his manager Pooja Dadlani and his bodyguard Ravi Singh returned from the United Arab Emirates to Mumbai in the wee hours of Saturday after attending the Sharjah Book Fair. The Pathaan star landed at the private terminal at Kalina, which is called the General Aviation (GA) terminal.
It was reported that King Khan was stopped by the custom officials and was asked to pay the custom duties of Rs 6.83 lakh at the airport as his team was carrying expensive watches worth around Rs 18 lakh which they had bought from the UAE. Now, a senior official at the customs, has revealed that the star and his team was not penalised and only basic formalities were completed.
The official told ETimes, "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."
Explaining why Shah Rukh's trusted bodyguard Ravi Singh was escorted to the widely accessible T2 terminal from the private GA terminal, the official 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."
The official also clarified that SRK's team was only carrying an Apple watch and watch winder cases (specialised cases used for luxury watches), and not the expensive watches as initially reported. The value of the gifts that the Swades actor received in Sharjah was calculated to be Rs 17.86 lakh.
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"Then, Ravi Singh, who is from SRK's security team was escorted with one bag, which had the goods for payment of duty along with one customs officer to Terminal 2. Over there, Ravi paid the customs duty of Rs 6.88 lakhs, calculated as per the customs duty of 38.5 percent", the official, who wanted to remain anonymous, concluded.
Meanwhile, on the work front, Shah Rukh has three major films lined up for release next year. He will be first seen in Siddharth Anand's Pathaan in January, then in Atlee's Jawan in June, and finally, Rajkumar Hirani's Dunki in December.
