Chennai: The special court for cases under economic offences, Egmore, has dismissed a discharge petition filed by M. Natarajan, husband of AIADMK general secretary, Sasikala, seeking the court to discharge him from the 23-year old ‘Lexus car import case’ registered by Enforcement Directorate.
In July 2010, a special court for CBI cases convicted and sentenced four persons, including Natarajan, to two years rigorous imprisonment in connection with the case. The ‘Toyota Lexus car import case’, had its genesis in 1994 during Jayalalithaa’s first period as the chief minister and car was imported from the United Kingdom illegally.
According to prosecution, four accused — Natarajan, Sasikala relative V.N. Bhaskaran, administrator of JJ TV, Yogesh Balakrishnan and the then manager of Abiramapuram Indian Bank branch, Sucharita Sunderarajan — colluded to
They violated customs rules and caused a loss to central government to the tune of Rs 1.06 crore. Enforcement Directorate registered cases against them in 1998.
Another accused Balakrishnan, an industrialist, remained absconding and Bhavani, assistant manager of the bank, turned approver. CBI charged that Natarajan, a director of Tamilarasi Publication Private Limited, and Bhaskaran, authorised signatory of the company to operate the Indian Bank account, issued a foreign inward remittance certificate from the firm’s current account, while the bank official issued a certificate. Yogesh facilitated shipment of the car from the UK.
Enforcement Directorate also filed case against them for illegally transferring the amount. The charge sheet filed against them for committing offences under sections 8 (1) and 9 (1) (a) of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act read with section 49 (3) of the Foreign Exchange Maintenance Act (FEMA).
All the four, including Natarajan, filed appeals in the high court, which stayed the sentence. The appeals are still pending. ED also filed separate cases against them and it remained in the Economic Offences court. The trial in the case has now commenced.
Challenging the ED proceedings, Natarjan and the three others filed the present petition, seeking discharge from the proceedings. On December 22, the judge dismissed the discharge petitions. All the accused including Natarajan appeared before the court on Monday.
