Top Kannada actors face I-T dept heat for 2nd day
I-T officials raid four top Kannada actors, three producers
Bengaluru, Jan 4: The Income Tax department raids on four leading Kannada film actors and three producers here continued for the second day Friday, officials said.
In a simultaneous swoop down, the I-T officials began the raids Thursday morning on the properties of film actors Shiva Rajkumar and his brother Puneeth Rajkumar, sons of Kannada thespian late Rajkumar, and Sudeep and Yash.
The film producers who were raided are C R Manohar, 'Rockline' Venkatesh and Vijay Kiragandur.
With no relief to the actors and producers on the second day as well, the Income Tax officials expanded the scope of the raid by searching the premises of their close friends and relatives, I-T sources said.
The sleuths went through documents, files, ledger books, and seized a huge cache of cash and gold, they said.
Meanwhile, supporters of Shiva Rajkumar staged a demonstration outside his Manyata Tech Park residence, protesting against the raid.
Sudeep had expressed his apprehension Thursday that the raids could be linked to three blockbuster movies 'KGF', 'Villain' and 'Nata Sarvabhouma'.
Nicknamed 'Hattrick star', Shivarajkumar and Puneeth Rajkumar are the sons of Kannada thespian late Rajkumar.
Both actors have been delivering blockbuster movies.
Sudeep, who anchored the Kannada version of 'Big Boss', was hailed for his role in the movie 'Eega' - Makkhi in Hindi - and the multilingual 'Baahubali', which broke new grounds in Indian cinema and created records in box office collections.
'Rockline' Venkatesh had co-produced the Hindi movie 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan'.
Vijay is the producer of the latest blockbuster movie "KGF", starring Yash, Srinidhi Shetty and Anant Nag.
The film hit 2,460 screens all over the country on December 21 and is reportedly a box office hit, not only in Kannada, but also in the Hindi and Tamil versions.
C R Manohar has his own production house called 'Tanvi Films'.
He has produced Kannada and Telugu movies.
His latest movie was 'The Villain', starring Shiva Rajkumar, Sudeep and Mithun Chakraborty.
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Notices issued to Himachal conductor, driver for anti-Rahul Gandhi audio clip playing in govt bus
Shimla, Nov 30: After finding itself in soup over a CID enquiry on "missing samosas", the Himachal Pradesh government is again in a tight spot for issuing notices to a state roadways conductor and driver after an audio clip with defamatory remarks against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was allegedly played in their bus.
A man in his complaint to the Chief Minister's Office said defamatory words were used against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and other leaders in an audio clip which was played in the Himachal Road Transport Corporation (HRTC) bus plying between Shimla and Sanjauli on November 5.
In a letter to the conductor and driver of the bus on November 25, the HRTC sought explanation from them. The letter went viral on the internet.
Talking to reporters on Friday, HRTC Managing Director Rohan Chand Thakur said a routine complaint was received from a customer after which a fact finding enquiry was initiated. The enquiry was closed as the allegations were found baseless.
However, the wording of the explanation sought could have been better and the officers have been verbally conveyed to improve in the coming times, he added.
The defamatory words were allegedly used in a debate being played in the audio clip.
Reacting sharply to the letter, BJP MLA from Dharamshala, Sudhir Sharma, said the government should appoint marshals to stop audios being played in buses.
"Such decisions of the government are damaging the reputation of the state government as well as the state," he added.
Earlier, the state CID department had ordered an internal enquiry on the samosas which were brought for Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu during a function and by mistake were served to the his security staff. A senior police official had termed the faux pas as an anti-CID and ant-Government act.
