: A Special Court for cases of economic offences, Egmore, has dismissed a discharge petition filed by M. Natarajan, husband of AIADMK general secretary, V.K. Sasikala, in connection with the two-decade old ‘Lexus’ car import case.
In 1994, a Lexus luxury car worth several crore was imported from the U.K. and was presented as a wedding gift to V. Bhaskaran, a relative of Mr. Natarajan.
To evade import duties, the vehicle was declared as an used car.
A case was registered by the CBI against M. Natarajan; V.N. Baskaran — a London-based businessman who had sent the car — Balakrishnan, Yogesh and Sujaritha Sundararajan for the loss caused to the exchequer to the tune of ₹1.62 crore.
Case delinked
Since Balakrishnan had absconded, the case was delinked, and proceeded against the remaining four. In 2010, the Economic Offences Court convicted all the four and sentenced them to undergo imprisonment for two years. All the four, including Mr. Natarajan, filed appeals in the High Court, which stayed the sentence.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) also filed separate cases against them under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA), which is still pending in the Economic Offences Court. It was in this proceeding initiated by the ED that Mr. Natrajan had moved the discharge application.
A senior official from the ED who spoke to The Hindu confirmed the dismissal of Mr. Natarajan’s discharge petition and said that the department would continue the trial.
