Taapsee Pannu finally speaks up on IT raids
After three days of search and IT rais at Bollywood actress Taapse Pannu's house, she finally broke her silence about the same. The actress took to Twitter and said, "3 days of intense search of 3 things primarily 1. The keys of the “alleged” bungalow that I apparently own in Paris. Because summer holidays are around the corner. 2. The “alleged” receipt worth 5 crores to frame n keep for future pitching coz I’ve been refused that money before. 3. My memory of 2013 raid that happened with me according to our honourable finance minister."
She sarcastically concluded saying, "P.S- “not so sasti” anymore."
On Friday, Taapsee's rumoured boyfriend and Danish badminton player Mathias Boe took to Twitter to share how stressed the actress' parents are due to the raid. He also sought help from Union Minister of State for Sports Kiren Rijiju. He tweeted, "Finding myself in a bit of turmoil. Representing. for the first time as a coach for some great athletes, meanwhile I-T department is raiding Taapsee's houses back home, putting unnecessary stress on her family, especially her parents. @KirenRijiju please do something."
To this, Rijiju tweeted, "Law of the land is supreme and we must abide by that. The subject matter is beyond yours and my domain. We must stick to our professional duties in the best interest of Indian Sports."
The Income Tax department carried out the searches at 28 locations in Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune on premises linked to Phantom Films, Anurag Kashyap, Taapsee Pannu, Vikas Bahl, Madhu Mantena and some executives of talent management company KWAN and also another talent management company.
In a statement, the IT department said that it was carrying out search and survey operations which started on March 3 on two leading film production companies, a leading actress and two talent management companies in Mumbai.
"During the search, evidence of huge suppression of income by the leading film production house compared to the actual box office collections has been unearthed. The company officials have not been able to explain discrepancy of around Rs 300 crore," it said.
The IT department informed that evidence related to manipulation and under-valuation of share transactions of the production house amongst the film directors and shareholders, having tax implication of about Rs 350 crore has been found and is being investigated.
Commenting on the searches at the premises of Pannu, the IT department said, "Evidence of cash receipts by the leading actress amounting to Rs 5 crore has been recovered. Further investigation is going on." It said that apart from this, non-genuine or bogus expenditure to related concerns by the leading producers or director having tax implication of about Rs 20 crore has been detected.
"Similar findings have been made in the case of the leading actress also," it said.
