Imported car dealer arrested

MUMBAI: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested Haren Choksey, a major dealer of imported cars, and two others on Wednesday for allegedly evading duty by undervaluation and misdeclaration. Choksey was involved in the import of the Land Cruiser of actress Sushmita Sen, in 2005, a case that is still being heard at the Bombay High Court for octroi violation.Though Choksey has been under the scanner before, this is the first time he has been arrested.
The other two arrested are Arshad Baig, who manages the Total Car Mall at Navi Mumbai, and Hamid Patel. One Range Rover and one BMW imported by the three accused have been seized and 14 other imported vehicles are "detained'' for verification, DRI sources said. The owners of the vehicles are being identified.
The accused not only undervalued the vehicles, but also allegedly declared old cars as new because the duty on old cars is 155% while that on new ones is 113%.
Patel allegedly handles the money to be paid as customs duty, for which he had opened at least 86 accounts in the Union Bank of India in Dongri, in the names of individual "importers'' for the cars. Between December 2007 and August 2008, Patel allegedly deposited huge amounts of cash and got pay orders issued from the bank towards payment of duty.
The accused seem to have used Transfer of Residence (TR) rules for baggage wherein `importers' are mostly poor passengers coming from Gulf countries, who are asked to `import' the car for a sum of money. The TR rules allow Indians working abroad to import cars. The cars are then transferred under lease agreements to other Indians here who cannot fulfill the condition of staying abroad.
As the `passengers' who were used to import the vehicles are scattered throughout the country, the investigation is spread out to many states. The DRI is also checking the possibility of these cars being stolen abroad. The Interpol has done a lot of work on stolen cars in the UK and US, where often, the car owners are also part of the crime to claim insurance. The cars come to India via Dubai.
"The added advantage we have in this probe will be that we may identify some of the syndicates abroad and share information with those countries,'' said an officer in the DRI.
Choksey's involvement in the import at various stages, including undervaluation of cars, runs deep, DRI sources alleged.