Surat: The Surat Diamond Association (SDA) on Saturday detected 110 piece of synthetic diamonds from a packet belonging to two diamond traders operating from the Mini Bazaar diamond market in Varachha, according to a report published in The Times of India.

This is the first time that synthetic diamonds have been detected from the world’s largest diamond cutting and polishing centre after nearly 19 months ago huge quantity of synthetic diamonds were detected mixed in the natural diamond packets from Mumbai.

Sources said that the polished diamonds are 1.1 cent in size weighing 1.28 carat. The diamond packet containing the synthetic diamonds was purchased by two diamond traders—Krunal Borad and Gaurang Kanani—operating from the Mini Bazaar in Varachha. The diamond packet was sold to them by one diamond merchant named Ramesh Mavani, who in turned purchased it from one Chandu Sheta.

Dinesh Navadia, president, SDA said, “When the diamond packet was brought to us, we immediately conducting magnetism test to detect synthetic polished stones. The diamonds were purchased from Botad in Bhavnagar by one Chandu Sheta. This confirms the fact that the synthetic stones were cut and polished in Bhavnagar”

According to Navadia, the issue has been taken up the Natural Diamond Monitoring Committee (NDMC) set up by the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) for thorough investigation. The committee was set up after the huge quantity of synthetic diamonds mixed with natural diamond parcels were detected from Mumbai in 2013.