Saturday, September 10 2005 09:37 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) yesterday (Sept 9, 2005) seized two more luxury-imported cars as it continued to track down the recipients of high-end foreign vehicles brought into the country by evading customs duty to the tune of crores of rupees.

A Toyota Prado and a Porshe Cayne were confiscated from two businessmen in Hyderabad and Gurgaon, respectively, DRI sources said, adding with these, the total number of such cars seized went up to 14.

The Prado was registered in the name of Optrex Private Limited and the Porshe Cayne was registered in the name of businessman P Dubey, they said.

DRI sleuths earlier seized two cars -- a landcruiser and a Mercedes -- from Chandan Basu, son of former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu.

While the Landcruiser was registered in the name of a company where Chandan is the Managing Director, the Mercedes was registered in his name.

DRI launched the operation after detecting that one Sanjay Bhandari, who claimed to be owner of two non-existent hotels in Rajasthan, had allegedly purchased upto 50 luxury cars evading duty to the tune of crores of rupees.

Bhandari had allegedly obtained license from Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) for importing luxury cars to cater to its foreign clients and earn foreign exchange, the sources said. He, however, sold these off causing loss the national exchequer, they said.

Bhandari, who has since been arrested, has allegedly admitted to having imported 24 such cars but DRI officials believe the number could be around 50.