Now Sushmita Sen in DRI's deck

Now Sushmita Sen in DRI's deck
01st Mar 2006 15.58 IST
By Agencies

After Sanjay Dutt , Sunil Shetty and Saif Ali Khan , it is now the turn of former Miss Universe Sushmita Sen to get rid of her imported car.

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has seized Sushmita's imported luxury car Land Cruiser and asked her to pay Rs 20 lakh as customs duty.

The Land Cruiser was imported in March last year with accompanying documents allegedly stating its date of manufacture as December 1998 while the actual date of manufacture was 2003, DRI sources said today in Mumbai.

"Therefore, the value of the vehicle was declared very less with a customs duty of Rs 9 lakh being paid on the vehicle. The importer and the broker miscleared the chassis number of the vehicle that has a market value of Rs 56 lakh," the sources said adding the duty payable was actually Rs 20 lakh.

"Also the vehicle was brought into the country under the transfer of residence (TR) scheme that mandates that the vehicle may not be sold before two years of personal use by the importer," the sources said.

DRI sources said, Sushmita purchased the vehicle through dealer Haren Choksi in May 2005.

"We sought original manufacturing information from the manufacturer Toyota to ascertain the actual date of manufacture and conduct scrutiny of the vehicle and Toyota confirmed that it was manufactured in 2003," they said.

DRI is also keeping a tab on several such imported cars and is "expected to seize many more such imported vehicles in the near future," the sources added.