ED requests courts to expedite cases against Sasikala family members

Justice S Bhaskaran, before whom the appeals filed by Natarajan and others came up for further hearing on Monday, posted them to February 27 for final arguments. 

It may be noted that when Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul was the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, the CBI had filed a memo seeking early hearing of the case as it has been pending for long. 

The case relates to the import of the Lexus car in 1994 declaring it as a used vehicle of 1993 model. 

The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate registered separate cases against Natarajan and four others, stating that documents were formed to show a new vehicle as a used one, and that it caused a duty loss of Rs 1.62 crore to the exchequer. 

Since Balakrishnan-a London-based business man who had sent the car, had absconded, he was delinked and the case proceeded against Natarajan and three others-V N Balakrishnan, Yogesh and Sujaritha Sundararajan. In 2010, the Economic Offences Court convicted all the four and sentenced them to jail for two years. All the four, including Natarajan, filed appeals in the High Court, which stayed the sentence. 

The Enforcement Directorate also filed separate cases against them under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA), which is still pending in the Economic Offences Court and Natarajan had moved the High Court seeking to discharge him from the case. 

Meanwhile, the enforcement directorate is also stated to have given letters to the economic offences court to expedite pending cases against Sasikala and her nephew TTV Dinakaran, recently appointed as AIADMK’S deputy general secretary.