IT raids at Manjummel Boys actor-producer Soubin Shahir’s production company in Kochi
Kochi, Nov 28: The Income Tax (IT) department conducted raids on Thursday at the Kochi office of a production company owned by Malayalam actor Soubin Shahir.
According to sources in the IT Department, simultaneous searches were carried out at Parava Films on SRM road and Dream Big Distributors in Pulleppady here.
The raids were reportedly prompted by an earlier investigation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into alleged financial discrepancies related to the production of the superhit movie 'Manjummel Boys'.
Soubin Shahir, who acted in the film alongside Sreenath Bhasi and others, was also its producer.
The IT Department’s Kochi unit carried out the operation, focusing on the financial transactions of the production and distribution companies.
The raid, which began around Thursday noon, continued late into the evening, sources said.
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Chhattisgarh coal levy scam: Rs 4 crore assets of suspended IAS officer attached
Raipur (PTI): The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has attached properties of Rs 4 crore belonging to suspended IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, an accused in a coal levy scam, for allegedly amassing assets beyond his known sources of income, officials said.
The EOW had registered a disproportionate assets case against Vishnoi in July 2024, an official release said on Saturday.
During the investigation, the agency identified nine immovable properties, valued at around Rs 4 crore, allegedly acquired through illicit means in the names of Vishnoi’s family members and associated firms, it said.
“An application seeking attachment of these properties was filed before the Special Court under the Prevention of Corruption Act in Raipur. Following a hearing on April 17, the court ordered attachment of all such properties,” the statement said.
Accordingly, the Anti-Corruption Bureau/Economic Offences Wing attached the properties. The attached properties cannot be sold or transferred, it said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier provisionally attached five immovable properties linked to Vishnoi in connection with the coal levy scam, it added.
Proceedings are also underway in cases involving other public servants, including action taken in September last year against properties linked to Saumya Chaurasia, who was deputy secretary in the chief minister’s office during the Congress government, the statement said.
Vishnoi, a 2009-batch Indian Administrative Service officer, was first arrested in 2022 by the ED in connection with the alleged coal levy scam. He was among several accused who were granted bail last year by the Supreme Court.
The case refers to an alleged Rs 540 crore racket between July 2020 and June 2022, when an illegal levy of Rs 25 per tonne was being extorted by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen for every tonne of coal transported in the state.
