‘Immense disrepute’: Unease in Jaipur’s Johri Bazar as US woman, sold fake jewellery worth Rs 6 crore, awaits justice

Two months later, sitting in a restaurant in Jaipur, where she is pursuing a case against jewellers Gaurav Soni and his father Rajender Soni, she tells The Indian Express, “I got all the Jaipur jewellery checked. Cheaper moissanite stones had been used instead of diamonds, but it is nearly impossible to tell them apart without lab equipment. My designs have very tiny diamonds, making it even more tough. Instead of 14-karat gold, just 9 karat was used. Some pieces turned out to be gold-plated.”

She says she contacted the 11 US-based persons — all of them small designers — Gaurav had mentioned working with earlier. “They too have been cheated by him,” says Cherish.

When she called Gaurav, she says he “convinced me it was a mistake and he would replace the jewellery”. A week later, “he started making excuses, even suggesting that I had changed the stones”. She realised she had to go to India to sort the matter with him in person.

Gaurav contacted Cherish on Instagram in 2021. Till then, she was working with a Bangkok-based jeweller. “He gave me a good deal and also shared photographs of pieces he had made for US-based designers. In March 2022, I gave him a sample order. I got his pieces checked in the US before releasing payment of $2,500 (around Rs 2 lakh),” she says, adding they first met him in person in 2022 in Las Vegas.

On May 3 this year, Cherish arrived at Gaurav’s Johri Bazar store. When he refused to replace the jewellery, she sought help from an acquaintance, a famous local jeweller. “Despite his intervention, Gaurav only agreed to make repairs as compensation. As a precaution, I gave him just seven pieces,” she says.

When she went to pick them up from his shop, he denied having received those. Cherish says she simply picked up her pieces lying on his counter and walked out. She says Gaurav ran after her, threatening her with legal action. On May 9, Jaipur police arrested her from her hotel “for stealing jewels from Gaurav’s shop”. At the station, she says, police kept “taking Gaurav’s side and calling me dumb for not getting jewels tested”.

Later, they allegedly asked her to “compromise” with Gaurav: he would “repair” just 100 pieces in exchange for her dropping the case. Cherish stormed out of the police station. That evening, Gaurav sent her a written agreement agreeing to the compromise. She decided to file a complaint. Since local police allegedly refused to file an FIR, Cherish contacted the American Embassy in New Delhi for help. On May 18, she filed an FIR against Gaurav and Rajender at Manak Chowk police station in Jaipur. Following police intervention, Gaurav agreed to refund half the sum — around Rs 3 crore — within 48 hours. The next day, May 23, Gaurav, his wife, two daughters and father were in the wind.

She estimates she will suffer losses of nearly $7,00,000 (nearly Rs 6 crore). Cherish says she got all of Gaurav’s pieces tested in a lab. “His first pieces were absolutely pure, the middle batches a mix of fakes and original, and the last lot just fake diamonds. He even gave me lab certificates to keep up the charade.”

A Johri Bazar-based jeweller told The Indian Express, “For just Rs 50, testing labs will give you any certificate you want.”

Locals said Gaurav’s father Rajender has been running ‘Rama Rhodium’ in Johri Bazar for decades. His family says Gaurav’s grandfather migrated to Johri Bazar in the 1960s from Sri Ganganagar and started doing meenakari (painting surfaces of metals) for jewellers. He sent Rajender to Germany to learn Rhodium work (plating metals like gold to make them appear white).

For Johri Bazar’s jewellers, the news has had far-reaching consequences. A jeweller who was in Hyderabad says, “The moment I entered a retail shop in Hyderabad, the owner remarked, ‘Aa gaye Jaipur ke chor (Here come the thieves from Jaipur).’ It was humiliating.” Kailash Mittal, president, Jaipur Sarafa Traders’ Association, says, “The news has resulted in immense disrepute for us but one person doesn’t represent us.”

Bajrang Singh Shekhawat, ASP, Jaipur Police, said, “We are raiding all known hideouts of the accused. Gaurav had recently bought a Rs 3-crore flat in Civil Lines, which we have seized.” Cherish says, “If I don’t get justice in India and Gaurav is not found, I will file a complaint in the US. Let him be extradited there to face trial.”