Car import case: Probe team collects more evidence

Kochi, Thursday, February 09, 2012: Reliable sources informed that the probe team investigating the sensational luxury car import case has on Thursday collected more evidences which prove that Alex C Joseph, the prime accused had lived abroad while he was declared as a fugitive.
The probe team informed that Alex had possessed two passports (out of which one is fake) while he was living abroad. The case relates to duty evasion in the import of luxury cars worth around Rs 500 crore via various ports in the country.
Meanwhile the three-member advisory board of COFEPOSA today upheld the preventive detention order issued against the accused. Alex, who allegedly evaded tax amounting to Rs 500 crore while smuggling luxury cars, was arrested by the police when he alighted at an airport in Andhra Pradesh in November last year and was later handed over to the Kerala police.
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.