Kashyap, Pannu among film personalities raided
MUMBAI: The income tax department on Wednesday raided the homes and offices of filmmakers Anurag Kashyap, Vikas Bahl, actor Taapsee Pannu, and other film and media personalities, triggering allegations from Opposition parties that the action was politically motivated to muzzle dissent.
An I-T official said the raids, which began at 8am and continued late into the evening, were carried at least 30 places in Mumbai and Pune, and included the premises of Reliance Entertainment executive Shibhashish Sarkar, talent agency Exceed Entertainment executive Afsar Zaidi and the now-dissolved production company, Phantom Films.
A second I-T official said Kashyap and Pannu were questioned in Pune.
Residence and official premises of Kashyap and Pannu in Versova, Goregaon and Andheri were raided. Pannu’s PR company KRI Entertainment was also searched. Kashyap and Pannu have criticised several policies and leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The official said the searches were part of a tax evasion probe against Phantom Films, started by Kashyap, Bahl, director Vikramaditya Motwane and producer Madhu Mantena. The company opened in 2011 but shut in 2018 after sexual harassment allegations against Bahl.
increase in the number of sedition cases and a 41% increase in arrests over the previous year. A total of 93 cases of sedition were reported in 2019, with 96 arrests and charge sheets filed in 76 cases, as against 70 cases, 56 arrests and 27 charge sheets the previous year.
The Ministry of Home Affairs, in a written reply on February 10, informed the Rajya Sabha that of the 96 people arrested for sedition in 2019, only two were convicted and 29 acquitted. Investigations and trials are ongoing in the rest.
Former Supreme Court judge Justice Deepak Gupta told HT: “The law on sedition is widely misused... The law should either be abolished or be made noncognizable, as it was prior to 1974, so that only the State should be competent to file such a complaint, that too after scrutiny or sanction by a senior officer.”
Retired in May 2020, justice Gupta added: “In 1962, the Supreme Court in Kedar Nath Singh case read down Section 124A to say it applies only if there is incitement to violence. This is a necessary ingredient for applying sedition. But magistrates across the country seem to be unaware of this or are ignoring it. I hope the Supreme Court lays down guidelines soon in an appropriate case to prevent misuse of this provision.”
Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi told HT: “It will lead to a dictatorship if sedition charges are slapped for criticising a government. I fully support the views of the bench. Mere criticism of government or its policy, howsoever strong it may be, cannot amount to sedition... A charge under sedition can be invoked only when certain acts incite violence or seeks overthrowing a democratically elected government through violent means.”
In March 2015, Reliance Entertainment procured 50% stake in the company. Mantena’s premises were also raided.
All businesses, financial transactions, talent and event management contracts by Phantom with other entities is under scrutiny, added the official. Investigators said they seized documents and electronic evidence, and were examining them. A second official said bank accounts and lockers of these personalities would also undergo scrutiny and the searches might continue for a few more days.
In Maharashtra, the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi criticised the raids and said it was an attempt to suppress voices of people speaking against the central government. “Central agencies like ED [enforcement directorate], CBI [Central Bureau of Investigation], and Income Tax are being used to target those who take an antigovernment stand and speak against the policies of the regime,” state minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) spokesperson Nawab Malik told reporters. “The premises of Anurag Kashyap and Pannu have been raided. Both were raising their voices against the government,” he added. His cabinet colleague, Ashok Chavan of the Congress, said the raids were the Centre’s way of putting pressure on people. “They first employed IT, CBI, ED to conduct raids on vocal & upright political rivals for their character assassination. Now govt is chasing social activists, journalists & artists to threaten them against calling spade a spade,” said RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.
The central government rejected the allegations. “This is too much…probe agencies undertake investigations based