Rs 25 Crore Found From Tamil Film Financier As Actor Vijay Is Questioned

Income Tax officials claim their probe revealed unaccounted transactions betweenAnbu Cheliyan and Vijay. Vijay will continue to be questioned today as well.

Chennai: Officers of the Income Tax Department found Rs 25 crore with a powerful financier in the Tamil film industry after they searched his properties as they also questioned actor Vijay yesterday. Income Tax officials searched the properties of AGS Cinemas and film financier Anbu Cheliyan in Madurai and questioned Vijay in connection with an alleged tax evasion case. Vijay’s home in Chennai too was searched yesterday.
Officials claim their probe revealed unaccounted transactions between Anbu Cheliyan and Vijay. Vijay will continue to be questioned today as well.

AGS Cinemas had produced Vijay-starrer super hit film Bigil last year.

The BJP in Tamil Nadu had opposed his film Mersal, released in October 2017, for containing dialogues seen as critical of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the notes ban.

The BJP had demanded cuts in Mersal, alleging that some dialogues portray “untruths” about GST and the centre’s Digital India campaign.

After the GST was rolled out, some 1,000 cinema halls in Tamil Nadu had remained shut for days in protest against imposition of local body tax in addition to GST.

Yesterday, Vijay was summoned by tax officials from a shooting location in Cuddalore district. He was not accompanied the officials as he left the location to return home to Chennai for being questioned.

The searches were carried out in as many as 38 locations in Tamil Nadu.