Bollywood actor in tax evasion |
Bollywood actor Sonu Sood and his associates were involved in Rs 200 million tax evasion and violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) while raising funds from abroad, according to the Income Tax department. Raids on multiple locations linked to the actor continued for the third consecutive day on 19th September. An official statement issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) did not name the actor. But sources in the department said the raids were conducted at the premises of Sonu Sood, whose popularity swelled after his charity work during the Covid-19 pandemic. The IT department also claimed that the actor`s Charity Foundation raised funds from overseas donors using a crowdfunding platform in violation of FCRA rules. Raids were also conducted on a Lucknow-based real estate firm with which the film star partnered and allegedly invested black money. The statement said the "search and seizure" operations were conducted at 28 premises spread over Mumbai, Lucknow, Kanpur, Jaipur, Delhi, and Gurgaon. The main modus operandi followed by the actor had been to route his unaccounted income in the form of bogus unsecured loans from many fake entities. Investigations so far have revealed the use of twenty such entries, the providers of which, on examination, have accepted on oath to have given bogus accommodation entries. According to the IT department, the actor`s Charity Foundation started on July 21, 2020, collected donations to the tune of Rs 180.94 million from April 2021 till date, of which it spent around Rs. 10.9 million towards various relief work and the balance of Rs. 170 million has been found lying unutilized in the bank account.
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