Kannada film industry raids lead to seizure of Rs 109-crore unaccounted assets: I-T dept
Bengaluru, Jan 6: The Income Tax Department Sunday said the searches conducted on various persons and entities in the Kannada cinema industry, including top actors, resulted in the seizure of undisclosed assets valued at Rs 11 crore.
The raids also resulted in the admission of unaccounted income of about Rs 109 crore by the accused, it said.
In a massive operation, simultaneous raids were carried out on actors Shiva Rajkumar, Puneeth Rajkumar, Sudeep and Yash and film producers C R Manohar, 'Rockline' Venkatesh and Vijay Kiragandur from Thursday to Saturday.
"The searches resulted in seizure of undisclosed assets valued at Rs 11 crore including cash of Rs 2.85 crore and gold jewellery of 25.3 kg evidences found when put across to the persons involved resulted in admission of unaccounted income of about Rs 109 crore," the Investigation Wing of Income Tax Department said in a release.
The detection of concealed income could be much higher as there are many issues on which evidence has been found, but no admission has been made, it said.
The search operation was conducted at 21 premises and surveys at five places. For this, nearly 180 officials were mobilised from various places in Karnataka and Goa region.
The department conducted "discreet enquiries" for more than three months before the search and identified the modus operandi and the key players.
Stating that some of the evidence found like diversion of cash collected at theatres will be of interest to other revenue and enforcement agencies and will be duly shared with them, the department said, in accordance with the normal process of the investigation wing will be launching some prosecution cases for tax evasion at a very early date.
The Income Tax Department requests the entertainment industry in Karnataka to follow laid down accounting standards by recording all transactions in books of accounts and pay due taxes, it said.
The search action covered film production companies, film producers, film financiers and actors.
The searches have been "successful" in unearthing evidences of suppression of income from film production, distribution and exhibition as well as evidence of unaccounted cash expenditure in film, the department said, in particular evidence of unaccounted theatre collections in cash and consequential evasion of taxes have been found.
Evidence of unaccounted professional receipts by artists, cash investments in properties and jewellery through unaccounted income have been found, it said, adding that evidence has also been found of suppression of income from sale of audio, digital and satellite rights, unaccounted cash receipts from distributors, and of expenses from undisclosed and unaccounted sources.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
