Swara Bhasker, Taapsee Pannu and Anurag Kashyap
The Income Tax Department is carrying out searches at over 30 locations in Mumbai and Pune, including the premises of Bollywood actress Taapsee Pannu and film director Anurag Kashyap. Reportedly, the searches at the premises of these Bollywood personalities are in connection with an apparent "tax evasion" matter. Amid these I-T raids, Pannu and Kashyap have found support in actress Swara Bhasker and filmmaker Anubhav Sinha.
Extending her support, Bhasker took to Twitter to share 'appreciation post' for both Pannu and Kashyap. "Appreciation tweet for @taapsee who is an amazing girl with courage and conviction that is rare to see now days.. Stand strong warrior!" she wrote for the actress. Whereas for the filmmaker she tweeted, "Appreciation tweet for @anuragkashyap72 who has been a cinematic trailblazer, a teacher and mentor of talent and a man with rare candour and a brave heart ! More power to you Anurag."
Sinha, on the other hand, wrote, "Kashyap and Taapsee I love you both. Just."
The raids began Wednesday morning and continued till late night. Reportedly, it was resumed on Thursday morning. The searches, part of a tax evasion probe against Phantom Films and carried out across 30 locations in Mumbai and Pune, also covered Reliance Entertainment group CEO Shibhasish Sarkar and some executives of celebrity and talent management companies KWAN and Exceed.
Pannu and Kashyap, both known to be outspoken in their views on a range of issues, are shooting in Pune and are understood to have been questioned by the tax sleuths as part of the preliminary questioning that takes place during raids.
According to a report in PTI, documents and computer peripherals have been recovered from various premises.
The others searched include some Phantom Films production house employees, which was dissolved in 2018, and its then promoters Kashyap, director-producer Vikramaditya Motwane, producer Vikas Bahl and producer-distributor Madhu Mantena.
Tax department sources shared with the news agency that some inter-linked transactions between the entities searched are under the scanner of the department. The raids, they added, are aimed at gathering more evidence to further probe tax evasion allegations against them.
