INDIA: Income Tax officials conducted searches at properties linked to Bollywood actress Taapsee Pannu and filmmaker Anurag Kashyap on Wednesday over alleged tax evasion.
According to the reports, searches took place at 30 locations in Mumbai and Pune, including the premises of Phantom Films, which was co-promoted by Anurag Kashyap, Vikas Bahl, and Madhu Mantena. Some executives of celebrity and talent management company KWAN are also being raided.
Founded in 2011, Phantom Films produced films such as “Lootera”, “Queen”, “Ugly”, “NH 10”, “Masaan” and “Udta Punjab”.
Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said, “The Income Tax department probes someone based on whatever information they get. The issue goes to court later.”
As per reports, some inter-linked transactions between the entities searched are under the scanner of the department and the raids are aimed at gathering more evidence to further probe tax evasion allegations.
Kashyap and Pannu have been openly criticizing the BJP led government for a long time. Recently, Pannu had criticized the show of solidarity by celebrities towards the government in response to pop star Rihanna’s social media post.
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The actor also took a jibe at the pushback and said it was better to focus on strengthening one’s own value system if one tweet rattled one’s belief.
“If one tweet rattles your unity, one joke rattles your faith or one show rattles your religious belief, then it’s you who has to work on strengthening your value system not become propaganda teachers for others,” Pannu had said on social media last month.
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