The high-profile tax evasion cases involving actor-turned politician Suresh Gopi and actor Fahadh Faasil took a serious turn on Thursday with sleuths of the Crime Branch (CB) grilling Suresh Gopi for over two hours and the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) asking the Crime Branch (CB) to register a fresh case against Fahadh Faasil.
The MVD’s action against Fahadh Faasil came even as the Alappuzha District and Sessions Court granted the actor conditional bail in another case and directed him to appear before the Crime Branch in five days for interrogation.
The court also directed the actor to execute a bond of ₹50,000 each with two solvent sureties and told him to seek its permission before travelling abroad. Both Suresh Gopi, Rajya Sabha MP, and Fahadh Faasil are facing investigation for allegedly evading motor vehicle tax by registering their high-end luxury cars in Puducherry.
Suresh Gopi, who reached the Crime Branch headquarters housed in the Kerala Police Headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram in the morning, was questioned by Inspector General of Police (Crime Branch) S. Sreejith, who is heading the investigation, and Superintendent of Police K.V. Santosh.
The police had booked the action-hero under Sections 420, 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code. According to the MVD and CB, the actor had purchased two high-end cars carrying a price tag of ₹20 lakh and upwards and had registered them using fake address and documents in Puducherry to evade the 20 % motor vehicle tax being levied in Kerala. The State is estimated to have lost ₹30 lakh owing to the actor’s action.
In the statement to the Crime Branch on Thursday, the actor stated that the cars were purchased for his personal use in the Union Territory as he had landed property there.
The actor also produced documents to show that the car was registered in the address of the house he had taken on lease there.
He also produced documents of the land owned by him to support his claim and statement.
According to the Crime Branch, further steps will be initiated on the basis of the scrutiny of the statement given by the actor.
Report submitted
In Mr. Faaasil’s case, Alappuzha Regional Transport Officer (RTO) Shibu K. Itty said a report had been submitted to the Crime Branch for registering a case against the actor for forging residential address and evading tax.
“We had earlier served a notice on the actor. After this, he had paid tax for one of his vehicles, but replied that the other vehicle is not being used in Kerala,” Mr. Shibu said.
“We have a different opinion. The vehicle for which he has not paid tax has previously been charged 10 times by the MVD after our automated enforcement system detected it for speeding. A report requesting action against the actor was submitted to the Crime Branch last week,” he added.
The actor had recently paid ₹17.68 lakh as road tax at the Alappuzha Regional Transport Office after it was found that he had registered a Benz E Class car worth ₹ 95 lakh in Puducherry.
The second instance of tax evasion was unearthed by the Motor Vehicles Department later.
Sources said Mr. Faasil had registered the luxury vehicle worth around ₹1.5 crore in Puducherry and was being used in Kerala.
He had allegedly evaded tax to the tune of ₹30 lakh. It was also revealed that the actor had used forged residential addresses to register both the cars.
