Search the Internet           Tips

IT department raids top Hindi film stars, directors

Our Correspondent in Bombay.

The income tax department conducted raids on several top Hindi film stars and directors in Bombay on Tuesday.

The raids targeted directors Yash Chopra and Karan Johar, stars Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Amrish Puri and Urmila Matondkar.

"We had definite information and on that basis we launched surprise checks on their residences and offices," Director General of Income Tax (investigation) P K Sharma told rediff.com.

The raid began at 0830 IST with teams of income tax sleuths descending on the offices and homes of the Bollywood personalities, located between Bandra and Andheri in northwest Bombay.

It is learnt that 33 premises were searched with 150 income tax officers involved in the operation. Sixty policemen were also on stand-by for security.

"All the actors and actresses who were present in their premises were co-operative during the searches. Nobody resisted giving any kind of information," Sharma said. But he refused to name the personalities who were present at the time of the raids.

Asked whether any evidence of concealment of income had been found against anybody, he said, "We started our search at 8.30 am. It is only five hours since. The searches may go on for another 12 hours. So it is too early to say now."

Sharma said the searches could even continue for two or three days if the department was not satisfied with the documents recovered so far.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report