Sonu Sood allegedly violated Foreign Contributions Regulation Act: Preliminary probe

The Income Tax Department has widened its tax evasion probe against actor Sonu Sood as it raided multiple premises in Mumbai, Nagpur and Jaipur on Friday, official sources said. The department had launched the action against the 48-year-old actor and some people linked to him on Wednesday and the action continued.

Mumbai: Actor Sonu Sood is presently on the Income Tax radar and IT sleuths are searching over 30 premises linked to him, sources said on Friday. A source involved in the search informed the media that preliminary investigation revealed that the actor has allegedly violated the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA) and that the searches are still underway.

Certain documents proving that Sonu Sood had violated FCRA norms by receiving foreign funds have been recovered during the searches. "Large amounts of foreign contributions were found to have been spent for other means," said sources.

Another source said that the IT officials have found a huge amount of tax evasion. "The tax evasion relates to payments from Sonu Sood's personal finances. Accounts of the Sood Charity Foundation are also being examined," they said.

Source told the media that a number of unaccounted receipts have been found. "Documents such as bogus loans and bogus billing have been found and are now in the custody of the Income Tax Department," they mentioned.

Further, it was informed that proof of circular trading has also been found during the searches. "Chain of documents, which are now in possession of the Income-tax sleuths, shows that money has been routed through different accounts and the real beneficiary is Sonu Sood," they added.

Sources also informed that the actor has evaded tax by false claim expenditure.

Today is the third day of searches on premises linked to the actor by the income tax officials. The searches began on Wednesday.

With agency inputs