I-T probe reveals Mythri bought large tracts of land to evade taxes

Hyderabad: The income-tax (I-T) department, which raided Mythri Movie Makers for the second day in a row on Thursday, found that the production house allegedly allowed hundreds of crores in foreign investment without following Reserve Bank of India (RBI) norms, as well as failed to disclose total investments and income sources in their Income Tax Returns (ITRs) filing.

According to the I-T department, because Mythri Movie Makers is known to have produced big-budget blockbuster films starring top actors and actresses, many influential politicians were suspected to have invested. It was also reported that some unnamed political leaders have allegedly assisted the Mythri Movie Makers in obtaining funds from overseas. Further, I-T sleuths are probing Mythri Movie Makers not just for receiving funds from overseas and investing in Tollywood, but also for purchasing large tracts of land in and around Hyderabad. The IT officials discovered that the producers used the earnings from the movies to buy hundreds of acres of agricultural land on the outskirts of Hyderabad in order to evade taxes.

The I-T offices brought Xerox machines to make copies of original documents of sale deeds of properties purchased in and around Hyderabad by the producers, accounts of individuals and current account details, and Income Tax Returns (ITRs) filed by producers for the past few years. Since the founding of the Mythri Movie Makers in 2015, I-T officials have focused on sources of income, investments, business activities, paying tax and TDS to the government, and filing ITRs. Further, I-T officials found that the Mythri Movie Makers heads, including Erneni Naveen, Cherukuri Mohan and Yalamanchili Ravi Shankar engaged in financial transactions.

The Mythri Movie Makers' producers are suspected of breaching RBI regulations by receiving funding from abroad and hiding information about their sources of income, according to the I-T personnel who checked the records. Additionally, the I-T officials discovered that the producer used the earnings to finance the production of films.

The I-T personnel also specific information on modes of payments made over the previous few years to movie performers and production companies. Further, the I-T officials also obtained some documents from Sukumar's residence, and collected ITRs filed by Sukumar and his family members for verification.