IT raids on Bollywood director Anurag Kashyap and actress Tapsee Pannu reveal discrepancies worth 650 crores

After the Income Tax (IT) department conducted raids at various places linked to actress Tapsee Pannu and filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, the IT department said in a statement on Thursday (04 March) that it found evidence of huge suppression of income and a discrepancy of around ₹ 300 crore through its searches. 

The IT carried out search operations in Mumbai, Pune, Delhi and Hyderabad. A total of 28 premises were covered in different locations, which include residences and offices.

The search revealed evidence of huge suppression of income compared to the actual box office collections. Company officials working for Anurag Kashyap could not explain the discrepancy of around ₹ 300 crore, said the statement from the IT department.

There is also evidence of manipulation and under-valuation of share transactions of the production house amongst the film directors and shareholders, having tax implication of about ₹ 350 crore.

Cash receipts amounting to ₹ 5 crore have been recovered from the leading actress and further investigations are on. Bogus expenditure having a tax implication of about ₹ 20 crore has been detected as well.

The IT department was able to secure huge amounts of digital data in the form of emails, WhatsApp chats, hard disk etc at the office premises of the two talent management companies which are under investigation. Seven bank lockers were also found and they have been placed under restraint.

The opposition parties have slammed the raids, calling it “politically motivated”. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that “the raids are being carried out against those who supported farmer protests”.

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