Sushmita Sen to appear before court regarding imported Lexus

The former Indian actress and Miss Universe, Sushmita Sen has been directed by High Court to appear before a trial court for a car import case. The case is regarding the import of a car owned by Sushmita Sen, a Lexus LX470.

What is it about?

The case has been registered by the Customs Department and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) some time back. The case was registered after DRI found that a luxury car – Lexus LX470 imported by the actress was wrongfully imported to India and evaded custom taxes.

The car was imported by the seller Haren Choksey and the importer misused the provisions of Transfer of Residence (TR rules) of the Exim Policy. The DRI later found that the car was imported with misdeclaration of the chassis number, year of manufacture and the value to evade customs duties. The car was manufactured in 2004 while it was declared to be manufactured in 1998 to pay less tax.

DRI seized the vehicle on 24th January 2006 under the provision of Customs Act. Later, Sushmita Sen voluntarily deposited Rs. 20.31 lakh as the differential customs duty.

The case is still going on against the importer. Sushmita Sen is a witness in the case and was asked to appear in the court in July. After a lower court suspended the warrant, the Madras High Court has summoned Sen to appear as a witness in the case.

Sen earlier filed a deposition challenging the witness warrant issued against her. The court asked her to complete the cross examination by the trial court. The court has also directed police to give Sushmita adequate protection during her appearance for the trial. The former actress will now appear as a witness on next hearing date, which is set on September 18, 2017.

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