The opposition parties lashed out at the Centre after Income Tax (I-T) department conducted searches at production houses and event management companies linked to actress Taapsee Pannu, filmmakers Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, Vikas Bahl, and Madhu Mantena on Wednesday.
Leaders of the Congress Party and Shiv Sena, part of Maharashtra's ruling coalition, said that the Income Tax officials raided the premises of the Bollywood celebrities, especially Kashyap and Pannu, because they spoke against the Narendra Modi government.
Maharashtra Cabinet Minister Ashok Chavan called this an attempt to subvert voices rising against the Centre, alleging that the BJP uses the central agencies to target such people. “This (income-tax raid) happened to them as they are celebrities who voice their opinions about what is going on around the country,” he said.
Rajya Sabha MP and deputy leader of the Shiv Sena, Priyanka Chaturvedi, reiterated in a tweet, “Hope the Income Tax department of our country, is saved from bonded slavery status soon. Same wishes for ED and CBI too.”
Hope the Income Tax department of our country, is saved from bonded slavery status soon.Same wishes for ED and CBI too 🙏🏼
— Priyanka Chaturvedi (@priyankac19) March 3, 2021
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav too criticised the raids. “They first employed IT, CBI, ED to conduct raids on vocal & upright political rivals for their character assassination. Now Nazi govt is chasing social activists, journalists & artists to threaten them against calling spade a spade. Condemnable Act,” he tweeted.
They first employed IT, CBI, ED to conduct raids on vocal & upright political rivals for their character assassination.
Now Nazi govt is chasing social activists, journalists & artists to threaten them against calling spade a spade.Condemnable Act! @taapsee @anuragkashyap72— Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) March 3, 2021
Even civil society was not far behind at hitting out at the central government. Lawyer Prashant Bhushan also took to the microblogging site and tweeted in Hindi: “As Anurag Kashyap and Tapsi Pannu posted one or two tweets against the government from on Twitter, the Income Tax department started searching their accounts! Income Tax, Enforcement Department, NIA and police are the A team of this government.”
अनुराग कश्यप और ताप्सी पन्नू ने अपने ट्विटर अकाउंट से सरकार के खिलाफ एक-दो ट्वीट क्या किये, कि इनकम टैक्स विभाग उनका अकाउंट देखने पहुंच गया! इनकम टैक्स, एनफोर्समेंट विभाग, एन आई ए और पुलिस इस सरकार की ए टीम है। pic.twitter.com/hHt4EoNSvl
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) March 3, 2021
Earlier in the day, an I-T official said that the searches were carried out following instances of tax evasion. The official said that the accounts of the company were showing disproportionately low income, even though the movies produced were hits.
(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)
First Published: Mar 3, 2021 8:49 PM IST
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