Mumbai: India’s Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) and the Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB) have formed a joint committee to investigate the alteration of Gemological Institute of America (GIA) diamond grading reports, according to The Times of India (TOI).

The GIA last week published the names and suspended the accounts of 19 firms implicated in the alleged computer hacking scheme, of which 14 units were based in Surat or Mumbai, according to the TOI report.

The GJEPC has appointed three trade members to carry out a probe and gather evidence; the newspaper quoted unnamed sources as saying. The team will be talking to various groups, including senior management at the GIA and Tata Consultancy Service (TCS), a contractor that supports the grading lab.

The GJEPC has the right to carry out an independent probe to establish facts when its members are involved in an incident such as this, TOI quoted a senior GJEPC executive as saying.