Income Tax investigator on Wednesday claimed to have recovered Rs 77 crore in unaccounted cash from several hideouts in Chennai and Madurai of a financier of the Tamil blockbuster ‘Bigil’ which featured popular local actor Joseph Vijay, who is also under investigation for suspected tax evasion. On February 5, Income-Tax sleuths conducted a search at AGS Enterprises who had bankrolled Vijay’s Bigil for a whopping Rs 180 crore. Reportedly, financier Anbu Chezhiyan had lent money to AGS Enterprises to produce the film.
Income Tax raids on Bigil Producer and Financier
According to the latest development, Screen Scene (production house) who had secured the Tamil Nadu distribution rights of Bigil, has also come under scrutiny. Reportedly, I-T officials are conducting a raid at Screen Scene office premises.
An IT department press release said searches were conducted at 38 premises linked to the film’s producer, financier, actor, and his distributors, all based in Tamil Nadu, revealing hoards of unaccounted cash and incriminating documents.
The release further said, “A large number of property documents, Promissory notes, post-dated cheques taken as collateral security was recovered during the search and have been seized. As per evidence detected during the search, it is estimated that the concealment, in this case, is likely to exceed Rs. 300 crores. All documents in the original, belonging to the distributor have been recovered from a hideout place, which was the house of his friend. Scrutiny of the evidence so unearthed is under progress.”
It also added, “In the context of the issues of the prominent Actor, it is stated, that, his investment in immovable properties and remuneration received from the said Producer for acting in the film is the subject matter of investigation in the present search. Searches in some of the premises are still continuing.”
Currently, the confiscated evidence is being analysed and further investigation on the artists’ pay and other expenses are going on. Meanwhile, the state police were providing security to the team carrying out the raids.
