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CHENNAI: Officials from Income Tax Department seized Rs 65 crore while conducting raids at properties of AGS Cinemas and film financier Anbu Cheliyan in Madurai.
Top Tamil actor Vijay’s residence in Chennai was also searched. He is being questioned related to an alleged tax evasion case linked to AGS Cinemas, according to reports.
"The counting is still going on and the total seizure is likely to go up," an official said.
Officials claimed that investigation revealed unaccounted transactions between Anbu Cheliyan and Vijay which is why the actor’s home was searched.
"The AGS group and the financier were under our watch for quite some time with regards to their films," an official spoke with NDTV said.
Vijay, son of veteran film director SA Chandrasekhar, is believed to foster political ambitions.
Vijay's super hit film ’Bigil’ was also produced by AGS Cinemas last year. Bigil featured Vijay in a double role as father and son and the poster for the movie were released recently to mark Vijay’s birthday. Nayanthara has been paired with Vijay in the film.
"We were extremely courteous. It was Vijay who chose to wind up and return home where his wife was when searches were undertaken. We know he is a big star and our senior officers had given specific instructions to treat him with utmost courtesy," an official said.
The searches were carried out in 38 locations in Tamil Nadu. Income Tax officials said the searches were evidence based and that there was no political motivation.
The BJP in Tamil Nadu and the ruling AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhaga) party had opposed his film Mersal, which was released in October 2017. The film had some critical dialogues on Goods and Services Tax (GST) and demonetization.
The BJP had also demanded to cut out dialogues in Mersal, claiming that some dialogues depicted "untruths" about GST and the center's Digital India campaign.