Income Tax Department conducts raid at homes and offices of Anurag Kashyap and Taapsee Pannu

 

On Wednesday, the Income Tax Department raided the properties of Bollywood filmmakers Anurag Kashyap, Vikas Bhal, Madhu Mantena and actress Taapsee Pannu. The raid is done in connection with charges of tax evasion committed by,now dissolved Phantom Films which was owned by Kashyap.

Phantom Films was a film production company founded together by Kashyap, Bahl and Mantena in 2011. It was in the year 2015 when Reliance Entertainment brought 50% stake in the company. After some hits and misses, the company was later dissolved in the year 2018.

Searches have taken place at around 30 locations in Mumbai and Pune and an appearance in the court has not been ruled out by the IT Department.

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar backed the IT Department in a brief by saying that the Income Tax Department investigates someone only when they have a particular information and that the issue later goes to court.

However the opposition parties were against this raid and have claimed it as a new way to harass people who spoke up against the central government. Both Kashyap and Pannu have said to be outspoken critics of the government and have made their voice heard in various matters including the farmers protest in Delhi.

Maharashtra Minister Nawab Malik said "The way in which raids were conducted in the homes and offices of Anurag Kashyap and Taapsee Pannu, this is definitely the usage of Enforcement Directorate or the Income Tax against those who take a stand against the government or its policies. Anurag Kashyap and Taapsee Pannu have raised the voice against the Modi government's policies. This action is an attempt to suppress the voices."

Quickly RJD Leader Tejashwi Yadav labelled this raids as an "commendable act" and slammed the government. He tweeted on this Twitter "They first employed IT, CBI, ED to conduct raids on vocal and upright political rivals for their character assassination. Now Nazi Govt is chasing social activists, journalists and artist to threaten them against calling spade a spade. Commendable Act! @taapsee @anuragkashyap72 ".

They first employed IT, CBI, ED to conduct raids on vocal & upright political rivals for their character assassination.

Now Nazi govt is chasing social activists, journalists & artists to threaten them against calling spade a spade.

Condemnable Act! @taapsee @anuragkashyap72

— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) March 3, 2021