I-T raids at actor Vijay's residence in Chennai, second after Feb operation

The Income Tax department officials raided the residence of actor Vijay in Panaiyur, Chennai, on Thursday (March 12).

However, the reasons behind the raids are not known. The present raids came after the February 5 swoop down on the actor. The sleuths had then approached the actor as part of their investigation into the use of unaccounted money in his recent film Bigil.

Related news: More trouble for Bigil star Vijay as BJP workers stage protest

I-T sleuths turned up at the shooting location of his upcoming film Master at the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC)’s second tunnel. The shooting of the Lokesh Kanagaraj movie had to be halted mid-way.

Later, Vijay was taken to Chennai for further questioning, where he was quizzed for more than 24 hours. The raids had kicked up row as political observers thought the raids were prompted by the actor’s movies which indirectly questioned the Centre’s new citizenship law and other ‘exclusionary’ policies. Vijay fans said the actor was being meted out a different treatment for his ‘bold’ stance on political issues whereas actor Rajnikanth was being given a soft glove.

Related news: I-T sleuths take actor Vijay to Chennai for questioning