Chennai: The Income Tax (I-T) department has issued summons to actor Vijay, AGS group chief Kalpathi S Aghoram and film financier Anbu Chezhiyan for an inquiry into the funds and profits connected to the movie Bigil.
According to sources, the trio have been asked to appear for an inquiry in the next three days. On 5 February, I-T sleuths launched simultaneous raids at the properties of AGS Cinemas, Vijay and Anbu Chezhiyan. The raids were related to the profits earned by Bigil.
The searches resulted in the seizure of cash, documents and gold ornaments from Anbu Chezhiyan’s premises. It is alleged that I-T sleuths found undisclosed income to the tune of Rs 165 crore. They also recovered 1.25 kgs of gold. I-T officials are conducting inquiries with a few private bankers as Anbu Chezhiyan had different bank accounts.
On 5 and 6 February, Vijay was inquired by the I-T sleuths and his properties in the city and outskirts were searched. His residence in Panaiyur was searched for nearly 35 hours, sources said. During the raid, Vijay’s salary for the film came into the debate. The movie was publicised to have collected Rs 300 crore.
An official press release from I-T department read, ”The common thread among all these entities was the success of a recent film which was a box office hit collecting around Rs 300 crore. Large number of property documents, promissory notes, post dated cheques taken as collateral security were recovered during the search and have been seized. As per evidence detected during the search, it is estimated that the concealment, in this case, is likely to exceed Rs. 300 crore.”
Vijay was shooting at Neyveli for his upcoming film Master and I-T officials went there to question him. He was then brought to the city for further inquiry. He re-joined the shoot on 7 February after the raids concluded.