Chennai: Madras high court has fixed February 27 as the date for final arguments for the case relating to the import of Toyota Lexus registered by CBI against M. Natarajan, husband of AIADMK general secretary V.K. Sasikala, now in Karnataka prison in connection with the Rs 66.65 crore disproportionate wealth case.
The case relates to the import of a brand new Lexus car by Natarajan in 1994, by declaring that it was a used car manufactured in 1993.
According to CBI, Natarajan along with three others, his nephew V. Bhaskaran, one Yogesh Balakrishnan and the then manager of Indian Overseas Bank, Sucharitha Sunderarajan substituted the original sale invoice with a photocopy of an invoice fabricated by changing the date to July 1993. They cleared the car under transfer of residence provision, and thereby caused a loss of Rs 1.06 crore to the exchequer by way of short levy, penalty and redemption fine.
Finding all the four persons guilty on various counts, the special court for CBI cases had in July 2010 awarded two years RI. Aggrieved, Natarajan and others filed the present appeals in August 2010.
During the tenure of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul (since elevated to the Supreme Court as judge) as Chief Justice of Madras High Court, the CBI had submitted a memo seeking early hearing of the case. On Monday, the appeals filed by Natarajan and others came up for hearing before Justice S. Baskaran. The judge posted to February 27 for final arguments.
