Jayasuriya denies betel nut story

Former Sri Lanka skipper Sanath Jayasuriya today denied the report that he had allegedly smuggled rotten betel nuts (areca nuts) to India.

He said he had never been involved in any business activity dealing with betel nut.

“This is absolutely false and I have never been involved in any business activity dealing with betel nut. I completely deny the contents of the article and my lawyers have already responded to this defamatory and false article,” Sanath Jayasuriya tweeted.

The Director of Revenue Intelligence seized betel nuts worth millions of rupees in Nagpur and the report claims that the accused businessman revealed Jayasuriya’s name in the interrogation.

The team has called on Jayasuriya for questioning in Mumbai and a letter has been sent to the Government of Sri Lanka for further legal action. According to sources, two other cricketers will be called for interrogation within December 2.

In the news report, Dilip Sivare, the deputy director of revenue intelligence, revealed that the betel nuts were brought from Indonesia to Sri Lanka from where it was smuggled into India.

According to the report, The purpose of this smuggling operation was to draw an illegal advantage out of the SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Area) Act that gives a tax holiday on certain consignments between Sri Lanka and India for goods produced indigenously by either and sold to the other.

There is a 108% import duty if betel nut is imported directly from Indonesia. But the heavy import duty can be evaded if imports are done from Sri Lanka under the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement.