Hardik Pandya of India, who is considered as the best all-rounder, has unintentionally locked himself in a new controversy just before his return to the Indian team against New Zealand. This has happened after a particular scene from a Netflix series released recently stirred the debate again about his airport controversy in the past days.
The Netflix series has brought Hardik Pandya back into the discussions as it has provoked an old controversy about Mumbai Airport. The series “Taskaree: The Smuggler’s Web,” a crime thriller, is based on the incident that took place in Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport; through the narrative, a special Customs team’s effort to prevent smuggling is portrayed. Customs officer Arjun Meena, played by Emraan Hashmi, is main character of the web series and high-profile interceptions at one of the world’s busiest international airports are the focus.
Neeraj Pandey and Raghav Jairath, the creators of the series, have made it clear that the story is entirely fictional. However, there is a particular scene in the fifth episode that has forced everybody to look beyond the series. In that episode, customs go through an “IPL superstar” coming from Rome and recover luxury items of crores worth, including pricey watches.
The scene aroused memories of the real-life incident that took place at Mumbai Airport and involved Hardik Pandya in 2021; a huge lot of people was reminded of it instantly. Back then, there were lots of media reports that said two luxury watches worth about Rs 5 crore were confiscated from Hardik Pandya when he was returning from Dubai after attending the ICC T20 World Cup 2021.
Hardik Pandya Airport watch scandal he managed to clear his name,
Indian all-rounder strongly denied the allegations. He explained that only one watch—the one that cost around Rs 1.5 crore—was taken by Customs just for valuation. Pandya also informed that he had gone to the Customs counter by himself, declared the watch, and was ready to pay the duty required.
As per ANI’s report, the customs staff had only required the documents to finish the valuing of the watch, and Pandya’s cooperation was total throughout the process. He afterwards made it known that he had not played any part in the wrongdoings and even bolstered his argument that he follows the law.
However, the resemblance between the scene from the Netflix series and Pandya’s airport incident has sparked online debates once again, thus, his name has been brought back to the forefront just before the five-match T20I series against New Zealand starting in Nagpur on January 21.
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