Chennai: Sleuths of Income-Tax (I-T) department carried out raids at the residence of actor Vijay at Panaiyur here this morning. On 10 and 11 March, the co-producer of Vijay’s upcoming movie Master, Lalith Kumar’s house and office properties in the city were searched.
This morning, fans of the actor gathered outside his residence when the news of the I-T survey spread. Tight security was put in place by the city police. The reason for the raid is not yet officially told. However, it is alleged that the searches are in connection with Master’s pre-release business. The film is said to have made a business of Rs 220 crore.
Earlier, Vijay’s sports drama film, Bigil, ran into trouble with the I-T department. On 5 February, I-T sleuths launched simultaneous raids at the properties of AGS Cinemas which bankrolled the film, Vijay and financier Anbu Chezhiyan. The raids were related to the profits earned by Bigil.
At the time, Vijay’s residence in Panaiyur was searched for nearly 35 hours, sources said. 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 and 1.25 kgs of gold.
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.”