Car import case: Accused sent to police custody

Monday, January 16, 2012: Alex C Joseph, the accused in the case of duty evasion in the import of luxury cars worth around Rs 500 crore via various ports in the country, has been handed over to police custody for two days.
He was sent to police custody by the Ernakulam first class judicial magistrate Court on Monday in a fake passport case. He was held by Immigration Department officials in Hyderabad while trying to escape to Dubai using fake passport.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had earlier issued a lookout notice. Alex, a native of Thiruvalla in Pathanamthita district, had imported around 450 luxury cars under different names from various ports, including Kochi, from 1997, disguising them as used cars.
The cars imported are priced between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 1.25 crore. Toyota Lexus, Mercedes Benz, Toyota Land Cruiser, Rolls Royce, BMW and Mitsubishi Pajero were some of the cars imported. Apart from those in Kerala, Alex is known to have sold cars to customers in Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi.
Alex faked documents to import cars in the name of Keralites working as domestic helps in the Gulf. The fraud came to light when revenue intelligence checked the background of the people who imported these cars, and found that none of them could afford such luxury.
An import duty of 300 per cent makes buying brand-new cars from foreign countries a very expensive affair. Alex faked documents to show that these cars were used overseas for more than a year.
Alex has been evading arrest for the past 11 years, after the DRI issued a detention order against him in 2000 under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange And Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act. According to DRI officials, Joseph fled to the UAE immediately after the order was issued. He had, however, continued his smuggling with Sharjah as his base.