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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Cyclone Fengal: Pondy govt issues heavy rain alert to residents via SMS
Puducherry (PTI): Puducherry experienced heavy rains on Saturday morning prompting the union territory administration to send SMS alerts to around 12 lakh residents cautioning them to remain vigilant as cyclonic storm Fengal is expected to make landfall near here later in the day.
District Collector A Kulothungan told PTI that all necessary steps have been taken to ensure that people remained safe.
"We have evacuated people from low lying areas and shelter homes are ready to accommodate them. Arrangements were also made to supply food packets," he said adding that National Disaster Relief Force from Arakonam has arrived to engage in relief and rehabilitation works.
According to the official, cyclone Fengal was expected to cross the coast in the evening. Control rooms have been opened in the collectorate and also in the line departments.
Toll free numbers 112, 1077 and also WhatsApp number 94889 81070 have been put in place to help people facing crisis to contact for help.
Cyclone Fengal is likely to cross between Karaikal and Mahabalipuram coasts close to Puducherry, official sources said. The government has advised people to stay indoors.
The entire stretch of beach road and also several tourist spots were closed to ensure that there was no movement of the people near the sea shore.
Schools and colleges remained closed today.
