The Hindu : Front Page : I-T raids on film stars, financiers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 27, 2005

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Front Page

I-T raids on film stars, financiers

T.S. Shankar

Cash, fixed deposits, transactions amounting to Rs.5 crores revealed, says official

A.R. Rahman.

CHENNAI: In a major coordinated operation, Income Tax officials on Wednesday searched the houses of 19 film personalities to "unearth unaccounted money."

Vikram.

The simultaneous searches began early in the morning and continued late into the night.

Vijay.

Addressing a news conference, the Director-General of I-T (Investigation), Santosh Datta, said the searches, based on a two-month intelligence gathering exercise, covered popular film actors, music directors, producers, directors, playback singers and film financiers.

Surya.

The entire operation, he claimed, revealed cash and fixed deposit receipts worth Rs.1 crore and money transactions between Rs.5 crores and Rs.6 crores.

Trisha.

"We expect more cash and jewellery to be recovered from lockers, besides some documents showing property transaction." "We will seek explanation from these 19 film personalities and if they are unable to provide proper replies and documentary evidence, then unaccounted money, jewellery and other valuables will be seized," he added.

Those under the scanner are : A.R. Rahman, Vikram, Vijay, Surya, Trisha, Sneha, Jeyam Ravi, Silambarasan, T. Rajendran, Vivek, Oscar Ravichandran, S.A. Chandrasekhar, I.S. Sankar, Harris Jeyaraj, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Srinivas and Mano, besides film financiers — Pankaj Mehta, Subash Nahar and Sanjay Wadhwani. The known residential addresses and related office premises were searched by a posse of 300 personnel in Chennai and certain leads were given to Hyderabad and Mumbai, Mr. Datta, who is also the Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Chennai, said.

A clear signal

Through such raids, the IT Department, he said, was sending out a clear signal to the tax evaders in all segments of society, especially the film fraternity. Asked why some of the mega stars were not covered by Wednesday's operation, he said: "Our raids are still on and you will soon come to know very about others." The assessing officers would summon the 19 persons to record their explanations. It would take a couple of more days to arrive at the final figure of the tax evasion, he said.

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