India, June 12 -- A businessman, acquitted in a hijacking case two years ago, has been booked for allegedly defrauding a jeweller of gold, silver and diamonds valued at Rs.12.77 crore.

Birju Salla, 45, was the first person to be convicted by a special NIA court in Ahmedabad under the Anti-Hijacking Act, 2016, for placing a chit with a threat written on it in the toilet of an aircraft on a domestic flight. His conviction was, however, set aside by the Gujarat High Court in August 2023.

After a little over a year, Salla decided to pursue his family jewellery business. So he took 5,947 grams of gold, 18,965 grams of silver and diamonds from a Zaveri Bazar-based jeweller, to sell them. There's a catch, though. Salla had not yet paid the jew...