Mumbai: The Income Tax Department’s investigation unit on Wednesday conducted searches at nearly 30 locations in Pune and Mumbai including the properties of Anurag Kashyap, actress Taapsee Pannu, filmmaker Vikas Bahl, and Madhu Mantena.
Yesterday it was being reported that Taapsee Pannu and Anurag Kashyap were being questioned by the Income Tax Department officials in Pune.
Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut who has been vocal about her opinions on social media, reacted to the news of raids on Twitter and pointed out that many of these names from the raids were linked with ‘Me Too’ movement earlier. “Is it a coincidence that each and every stakeholder of Phantom n Kwan has been accused by multiple women of rape, molestation n harassment,” Kangana tweeted on Friday.
“But these are small players. One can only imagine how deep-rooted is terrorism in the film industry,” the actor said adding that the government should set a good example for everyone.
“Money laundering numbers and involvement of stakeholders can be shocking. I had my suspicions when I saw them provoke migrant labourers with some high budget anti-India animation advertisements,” Kangana wrote.
In the next tweet, Kangana also spoke about talent management agency KWAN whose co-founder is Madhu Mantena. She wrote, “Kwan agency and Phantom production house were the prominent accused in #MeToo many rape allegations/ cases on them but Bullydawood protected them, people like Anurag Kashyap are not only rape accused but they also tried to justify Shushant’s death, who all think its divine justice.”
“They are not just #TaxChor huge transactions of black money has happened, did they get that money for provoking #Shaheenbagh riots or #republicdayviolence… From where the black money came and where did they send the black money which isn’t accounted for?” the actress wrote in another tweet.
On Thursday, income tax officials disclosed that some discrepancies and manipulations were found during their raids on properties of Anurag Kashyap, Taapsee Pannu and others linked with Phantom films.
The official statement which was released by the agency read, “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 the discrepancy of around Rs. 300 crore.”
It further read, “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 further investigated. Evidence of cash receipts by the leading actress amounting to Rs 5 crore has been recovered. Further investigation is going on.”