Since the article lists prices in INR: The price of the iPhone 12 Pro in India in USD today is $1,615.22, and the price in Dubai is $1,140.15. So it must be possible to fly round-trip to Dubai for less than about $475, which seems plausible.
There are actually quite a few regularly scheduled flights to Dubai from India that can be acquired cheaply - a not-insignificant amount of the area’s migrant workers originate from India.
The calculation is not as simple as that. Any imports above INR 50K (about USD 676), while traveling back to India by Indian citizens, attract import duties (of 35% or so, IIRC). So the $1140.15 device, when it lands in India, would attract a duty on the excess amount. Of course, people may not declare it at customs or may try to claim it's a used device (while not having any other phone), but this is the official law.
