The Madras High Court has refused to quash a chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Four by Four Motors, a shell company reportedly floated by Kerala-based car smuggler Alex C. Joseph, and its director K. Vijendra Samuel, who has now settled down in Botswana, in a case related to illegal import of a luxury car from Dubai.
Justice G. Jayachandran rejected the plea on the ground that the prosecuting agency had collected enough material to try the petitioner company as well as its director on the charge of conspiracy hatched by Joseph to import the luxury car in violation of rules.
Explaining the modus operandi of the accused, the prosecution told the court that the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence in Chennai had received a tip-off from its informants on March 6, 2008. about the illegal import of luxury cars by Joseph. The then Senior Intelligence Officer Murugunanatham took up the investigation.
Senior officials misled
Enquiries by him revealed that the illegally imported cars were in the possession of high profile politicians and industrialists in the State. However, he did not take steps to seize the vehicles. On the other hand, he misled his higher officials by passing on wrong information with respect to the investigation conducted by him.
Therefore, the CBI registered the present case against the officer, the car smuggler, an industrialist who had purchased one of the cars and a host of others involved in the crime committed in 2003. In the course of the investigation, the CBI seized several cars. Out of 57 vehicles that came under the scanner, 24 were imported in violation of the law.
One of those vehicles involved in the case was imported in the name of an NRI, who had returned to the country for permanent settlement.
Further, in order to ensure that vehicle fetched a higher price, the 2000 model car was falsely registered as a 2003 model at the Regional Transport Office here by producing fake invoices reportedly issued by a Dubai-based dealer and after bribing the Transport Department officials.
As far as the petitioners before the court were concerned, the charge against them was that the industrialist, for whom the car was imported and registered here, had deposited ₹50 lakh into the account of Four by Four Motors, a company run by the benami of Joseph.
