The Central Bureau of Investigation.(Representational Image)
V K Sasikala’s husband M Natarajan on Thursday surrendered before a CBI court in Chennai in connection with a duty evasion case, ANI has reported. Natarajan had been accused of evading customs duty while importing a luxury car from the United Kingdom in 1994. The former had declared the car as used vehicle and evaded a tax of Rs. 1.06 crore.
The Supreme Court had in December granted bail to him and three other accused in the case, directing them to deposit Rs 25 lakh each in its Registry. Earlier in November, the Madras High Court had upheld a trial court order sentencing Natarajan, along with the three accused — his nephew V Bhaskaran, Yogesh Balakrishnan and Sujaritha Sundararajan — for importing a brand new Toyota Lexus.
The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had registered separate cases against Natarajan and the other three accused after it was found that the documents presented by them were allegedly fabricated. According to the CBI, all four had substituted the original sale invoice with a photocopy of an invoice fabricated by changing the vehicle’s manufacturing date to July 1993.
The ED had also filed a case under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) 1973 and the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999. Natarajan has been skipping all previous appearances citing health reasons. He underwent a liver transplant in a private hospital of Chennai in October.