The Income Tax department reveals that it found discrepancy and manipulation of income during the searches at various places linked to actor Taapsee Pannu, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap and his partners who launched the now shuttered production house Phantom Films. There was also huge suppression of income compared to the actual box office collections.
The officials also said that they found evidence related to manipulation and under-valuation of share transactions of Phantom Films amongst the film directors and shareholders, having tax implication of about ₹350 crore. Evidence of cash receipts by the leading actress amounting to ₹5 crore has also been recovered.
Further, the officials also revealed that a huge amount of digital data has been recovered in the form of emails, WhatsApp chats, hard disk etc which are under investigation. Moreover, 7 bank lockers have been discovered which are currently seized.
“Apart from this, non-genuine/bogus expenditure to related concerns by the leading producers/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. At the office premises of the two talent management companies, huge amounts of digital data has been seized in the form of emails, Whatsapp chats, hard disk etc which are under investigation. During the search, 7 bank lockers have been found which have been placed under restraint. Search is continuing in all the premises,” said the IT officers.
