Shivarajkumar, Puneet Rajkumar among top Kannada actors raided by Income Tax department

The raids were carried out across 23 locations in the state and involved around 200 sleuths where 'Rockline' Venkatesh, C R Manohar and Vijay Kiraganduru are the film producers whose residences were raided.

Bengaluru: The Income Tax (I-T) department on Thursday carried out raids on the residences of four top Kannada film actors and three leading producers in a simultaneous state-wide exercise. Actors Shivarajkumar and Puneeth Rajkumar, sons of Kannada thespian late Rajkumar, and Yash and Sudeep came under the I-T lens, officials told PTI, as the bigwigs of the state film industry woke up to the knocks of Income Tax officials on their doors.

Earlier today, the Income Tax Department sleuths also conducted searches at over two dozen premises of popular hotel and restaurant chains in Tamil Nadu on charges of alleged tax evasion. Saravana Bhavan, Hot Bread, Anjappar and Grand Sweets were among the 32 locations swooped down by IT officials.

The raids were carried out across 23 locations in the state and involved around 200 sleuths where 'Rockline' Venkatesh, C R Manohar and Vijay Kiraganduru are the film producers whose residences were raided.

Nicknamed 'Hat trick star', Shivarajkumar is the son-in-law of former chief minister late S Bangarappa. 'Power-star' Puneeth Rajkumar shot to fame for his role as a child artist in the Kannada movie 'Bettada Hoovu' and had won a National Film Award.

Sudeep, who anchored the Kannada version of 'Big Boss', was hailed for his role in the movie 'Eega' (Makkhi in Hindi) and the multi-lingual 'Baahubali', which broke new grounds in Indian cinema and created records in box office collections.

Rockline Venkatesh is a relative of Congress MLA and film producer Munirathna. He had co-produced the Hindi movie "Bajrangi Bhaijaan". Vijay is the producer of the latest blockbuster movie "KGF", starring Yash, Srinidhi Shetty and Anant Nag. The film hit 2,460 screens all over the country on December 21 and is reportedly a box office hit, not only in Kannada, but also in the Hindi and Tamil versions.

C R Manohar has his own production house called 'Tanvi Films.' He has produced Kannada and Telugu movies. His latest movie was 'The Villain', starring Shivarajkumar, Sudeep and Mithun Chakraborty.

The raids on one of the places, the I-T sources said, unearthed a huge cache of cash and gold ornaments. The I-T officials had brought with them a goldsmith to evaluate the ornaments.