Gabreila Sophia Donocliff received the car at the Nhava Sheva port in Mumbai on July 19, 1995. She told customs officals that she would keep the BMW in India until January 17, 1996, after which it would be re-exported to Britain.

The CBI says that Donocliff furnished a bank guarantee of Rs 12 lakh, issued by the KG Marg branch of the Bank of Baroda, on July 10, 1995, to avail of customs duty exemption. The FIR states that after that period, the BMW was neither re-exported nor its retention period extended. It also mentions that the BMW cannot be traced in the country. When the customs forwarded the guarantee to the bank for payment, it wrote back saying that no such guarantee had been issued by it. The customs department then registered a complaint with the CBI.