Actor and former Miss Universe Sushmita Sen on Monday appeared as a prosecution witness before a city court in connection with violation of provisions of the Customs Act by her dealer Haren Choksi, through whom she bought an imported car.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had unearthed a scam in importing high-end cars by a group through the Chennai port. The Customs Department, Chennai, filed a criminal case in 2015 against Choksi, a resident of Malabar Hill and importer Vasu Bandari Thamla for having violated the Export and Import (EXIM) policy by importing luxury cars in contravention of ‘Transfer of Residence’ facility of baggage rules.
Choksi was alleged to have misdeclared the year of manufacture and model number and tampered with the chassis number of the imported cars, to avoid paying customs duty due as per the provisions. Ms. Sen had bought a Land Cruiser from him. She was cited as a prosecution witness in the case and after a long delay, she appeared before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate- Economic Offences- I (ACMM-EO-I) A.Zakir Hussain on Monday.
Clad in tattered blue jeans and black top, the 42-year-old actor, accompanied by her advocates, came to the court complex. She stood in the witness box and was cross-examined by senior counsel Divakar Singh, the defence counsel, for 90 minutes.
Ms. Sen said that her manager had inspected the documents of car before the purchase. She never asked Choksi to import the car on her behalf. The car was shown to her after import. She raised a loan from HSBC to buy the car.
Pleads ignorance
Ms.Sen said she was not aware of original owner. When the defence counsel repeated the questions, she pleaded ignorance and said she came to know only through DRI officials that the chassis number of car was tampered with.
As Ms. Sen looked anxious and was coughing frequently, the magistrate told her that she was only a witness and not an accused in the case.
At the end of the cross-examination, she posed for photo with women staff of the court. A woman staff member remarked said, “We heard the actor was more kind-hearted and adopting children every year.”
After reaching the ground floor of the complex, Ms. Sen, on seeing the media personnel, went back into the building.