DRI moves in to seize Jyoti Basu son’s foreign luxury car

Industrialist Chandan Basu, son of veteran CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu, is the first one but certainly not the last in a growing list of VVIPs ...

Industrialist Chandan Basu, son of veteran CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu, is the first one but certainly not the last in a growing list of VVIPs alleged to be using luxury cars imported under a false pretext to evade crores in duty.

The man who imported these cars is Delhi-based Sanjay Bhandari arrested last week. His records, accessed by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) so far, show at least 50 ‘‘end-users,’’ including top politicians, businessmen and socialites. Nine cars have been seized so far.

Assistant Director DRI (Kolkata) Sanjeev Sachdeva confirmed to The Indian Express tonight that the DRI had moved in and completed all formalities to seize Basu’s Toyota Landcruiser Amazon (DL 9CC 3200).

Despite repeated attempts, Basu was unavailable for comment.

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DRI sources said Bhandari had devised an ingenious plan to evade duty. He imported cars—high-end brands, including Lamborghini, Lexus, Humvees—in the name of promoting tourism but ended up leasing and then eventually selling these cars to politicians and businessmen.

The DRI faces a complex paper trail. For example, Basu’s car is registered in the name of V K Tours & Travels leased out to one O M Udyog. The Amazon costs over Rs 15 lakh and with duty it would have been double that cost.

But Bhandari, to evade the 105 per cent duty—imposed on high-value imported cars—allegedly used the Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) Scheme under which a registered ‘‘travel and tour operator’’ can import such a car by paying just 5% duty to promote tourism.

Bhandari allegedly made use of this scheme and imported such cars in the names of the companies such as History Logistics, V K Tours & Travels, North-West Marwar Resort & Health Spa Ltd, Raj Mahal Bhindar.

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Investigators say he used to lease out these cars but these were subsequently sold to VIPs. The extra money he charged from the buyer was his profit. Often the money used to come in instalments, so he prepared lease agreements. Some of these agreements have been recovered.

Bhandari was produced before a Delhi court last week and remanded to judicial custody. He claimed to own a resort in Bhu village of Jaisalmer but the DRI only found barren land there. Investigators say he used this to pass himself off as a tourism-promoter.