IT raids on Kannada film industry: Department doing its duty, says Kumaraswamy

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy Saturday said the Income Tax officials were only doing their duty based on the inputs they have in conducting ongoing raids on top Kannada film stars and producers.

Kumaraswamy said the raids were going on everywhere and it happens only when the I-T officials come to know about tax evasion.

To a question on whether he thought there was any political motive behind the raids, he said "Instead of saying they (raids) are politically motivated, we should say that the I-T officials are doing their duty. What choice do they have if the information is correct?" he told reporters in Hubballi.

The raids on four film actors Shiva Rajkumar, Puneeth Rajkumar, Sudeep and Yash and film producers C R Manohar, 'Rockline' Venkatesh and Vijay Kirigandur continued for the third day on Saturday, I-T department sources said.

The sources added that they could not say whether the raids would end Saturday or not.

The chief minister said film actors and producers "are not something special" and everybody has to function within the legal framework of the country.

"Whenever there is information about the violations, legal procedure is followed," the chief minister said, adding that it holds good not only for the I-T department, but all the government departments.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara said he has no objection if the raids were impartial, but it should not be something related to any political party.

He was replying to a question from reporters whether he thought there was any political motive to the raids.

Nicknamed 'Hattrick star', Shivarajkumar and Puneeth Rajkumar are the sons of Kannada thespian late Rajkumar.

Both actors have delivered blockbuster movies.

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 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 Shiva Rajkumar, Sudeep and Mithun Chakraborty.