Top actors paid hawala money, finds I-T raids in Telangana

HYDERABAD:  The Income Tax  (I-T) department is understood to have veered to the conclusion that the move-making company in which it had carried out searches recently, made payments to top actors, heroes and a famous director in Bollywood through hawala route.

The Mumbai Income Tax officials reportedly detected transactions through the hawala route by the movie production company. Sources said that the Income Tax Department officials found Rs 150 crore being transferred to a Bollywood director through this channel.

A Tollywood director who is busy making a sequel to his earlier movie had invested his money in infra and real estate. The sources also stated that the hero who is busy shooting in the sequel received the money from the company through this questionable route.

The company in the last two years paid the remunerations to the actors including a senior and one of the top heroes through hawala channel which has become the talk of the town in Tollywood.

The company received the money from abroad via a Mumbai-based company. The I-T teams identified that the Mumbai company received almost Rs 700 crore from abroad and it, in turn, transferred it to seven companies for onward transfer to the movie company to avoid detection. The sources stated that the I-T sleuths inquired about the company which had received huge sums of money for investment purposes and investigated the transactions. They were shocked to uncover the flow of huge sums of money.

The I-T officials now are looking into the actors’ accounts and their businesses as they suspect the money they had received through the shady channel could have been parked there. The sources stated that the officials are likely to issue notices to them to appear before them in Mumbai.