Ajay Devgan's Bike Among 70 Picked

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Actor's bike among 70 picked for ducking duty

MUMBAI: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has "detained'' about 70 superbikes from Mumbai and Pune, including the one being used by actor Ajay
Devgan, for alleged duty evasion. Superbikes are not manufactured in India; these bikes were not imported in one piece, but as parts over several years, and then assembled.

While the newly imported bikes attract 60% duty, old bikes attract 100% duty. The parts, on the other hand, are brought in at 24% duty.

Five swanky bikes, mainly of Honda make, are "detained'' the Marine Lines office of the DRI. One of them is a Suzuki Hayabusa. Some of these can attain a speed of 200 kmph. On Thursday, 22 premises, including some automobile showrooms, were searched. Some bikes were picked up from the homes of owners, like that of Devgan. Film-maker Sanjay Gupta's bike is also under the scanner. He, however, denied that it had been "detained''.

The DRI worked backwards on the information that customs data in Mumbai did not show any imports of bikes, but they were being used all over, specially in suburbs like Bandra and Andheri and even in south Mumbai. The RTO registrations of these bikes led the DRI to the documents of sale and import, including the bills of entry, which turned out to be forged.

The parts were imported from Singapore. The DRI is still checking whether they were imported as misdeclared cargo. The superbikes are sold for anything between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 15 lakh. The number of bikes "detained'' will go up substantially, as the agency is still on the job. Sources said neither Devgan nor the other owners might have known about the way the bikes were imported.
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