Hyderabad luxury car dealer arrested for Rs 100 cr customs duty evasion

Luxury car dealer Basharat Khan arrested for Rs 100 crore customs duty evasion linked to illegal imports of high-end cars via Dubai and Sri Lanka through undervaluation tactics

A luxury car dealer from Hyderabad has been arrested in Gujarat for his alleged involvement in a ₹100 crore customs duty evasion fraud.

 

According to an NDTV report, Basharat Khan, owner of 'Car Lounge', is a prime suspect in the ₹100 crore fraud linked to the import of high-end illegal vehicles. Khan allegedly played a crucial role in undervaluing luxury cars imported from abroad.

 

Citing Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials, the report stated that, in some cases, these vehicles were undervalued by nearly 50 per cent of their actual value to evade higher customs duties.

 

The initial inquiry revealed that luxury cars were being sourced from countries like the US and Japan, rerouted to India via Sri Lanka or Dubai. The vehicles were converted from left-hand drive to right-hand drive in Dubai and Sri Lanka to meet Indian road requirements, before being imported with fake documents.

 

Searches led to the identification of 30 illegally imported vehicles so far, including models such as the Hummer EV, Cadillac Escalade, Rolls-Royce, Lexus, Toyota Land Cruiser, and Lincoln Navigator.

 

Khan, who has been operating his showroom in Hyderabad for over a decade, is accused of importing eight illegal vehicles, resulting in customs duty evasion worth ₹7 crore.

 

However, Khan was not acting alone. His associate, Ahmed, assisted in the fraud by storing several of these imported luxury vehicles at his farmhouse.

 

The illegal import network spans multiple cities, including Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, and Delhi. Officials noted that Khan's business grew after forging influential and political connections, selling high-end vehicles to such clients. Many of his customers reportedly made cash transactions to avoid taxes.

 

Khan has been remanded to judicial custody, and the investigation is ongoing.