Income Tax raids unearth Rs 77 crore from financier of Vijay-starrer ‘Bigil’

Actor Vijay’s Bigil, which released in 2019, reportedly grossed Rs 300 crore at the box office worldwide. Four months later, the producer, actor and the financier who are associated with the film are being questioned by the Income-Tax officials.

On February 5, Income-Tax sleuths conducted a search at AGS Enterprises who had bankrolled Vijay’s Bigil for a whopping Rs 180 crore. Reportedly, financier Anbu Chezhiyan had lent money to AGS Enterprises to produce the film. According to a press release from the Income Tax department, they had seized “unaccounted cash of about Rs. 77 crore from hideouts and secret places located at Chennai and Madurai, purportedly belonging to the financier.”

According to the latest development, Screen Scene (production house) who had secured the Tamil Nadu distribution rights of Bigil, has also come under scrutiny. Reportedly, I-T officials are conducting a raid at Screen Scene office premises.

During the raid, Vijay’s salary for Bigil had come into discussion and the officials went all the way to Neyveli, where the actor is shooting for his upcoming film Master, to question him. After questioning him, many I-T officials have been conducting a search at Vijay’s residences in Saligramam and Panaiyur.

The press release denotes that 38 premises of the group were covered in search and survey actions spread over Chennai and Madurai. “The common thread among all these entities was the success of a recent film which was a box office hit collecting around Rs. 300 crore,” they wrote.

Reportedly, The I-T sleuths estimate concealment of money is likely to exceed Rs 300 crore. “Large number of property documents, Promissory notes, post dated cheques taken as collateral security were recovered during the search and have been seized. As per evidence detected during the search, it is estimated that the concealment, in this case, is likely to exceed Rs. 300 crore. All documents in original, belonging to the distributor have been recovered from a hideout place, which was the house of his friend. Scrutiny of the evidence so unearthed is under progress,” they said in the press release.

Currently, the confiscated evidence is being analysed and further investigation on the artists’ pay and other expenses are going on.