Kerala film stars seek bail fearing arrest by police in car tax dodge

Film stars Fahadh Faasil and Amala Paul have approached the courts seeking anticipatory bail against the police arresting them for tax evasion.Both stars face charges of ‘illegally’ registering their luxury cars in federally administered Pondicherry where the road tax is abysmally low compared to their home state of Kerala.Faasil had last week moved the district sessions court in Alappuzha while Paul approached the Kerala High Court yesterday. The Alappuzha court is scheduled to deliver its verdict today while the high court in Kochi is yet to post the matter for hearing.The Kerala police began a crackdown on luxury cars not re-registered here after Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, secretary of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Kerala, was seen at a rally in a Mini Cooper owned by a gold smuggler.The motor vehicles department (MVD) circulated a WhatsApp number for the public to submit details of vehicles registered in Pondicherry. It was later revealed the tax evaders included film stars and businessmen. All cars had been registered with fake addresses using a loophole allowing registration of vehicles on temporary residence address. Thus the state had lost an estimated Rs3bn on this account. Many high-end luxury vehicles bearing Pondicherry registration have begun disappearing from state roads after the crackdown. The wealthiest district of Ernakulam alone had 1,000 cars. High-value cars attract almost 15% tax over the purchase value in the state whereas in Union territories it’s less than 1%.Both stars purchased their Mercs from Pondicherry to evade hefty tax back home.The crime branch of the Kerala police had asked the two stars to appear before an investigation team led by deputy inspector general of police (DIG), S Sreejith, on Tuesday after they failed to appear on an earlier date. The stars have sought three more weeks citing their busy shooting schedule outside the state. Faasil was asked to report in the morning and Paul in the afternoon for questioning at the police headquarters here.However, Faasil sent a message stating he was busy shooting for a Mani Ratnam film and required three weeks’ time to appear before the team. Paul’s father sent a message by afternoon stating she was currently shooting at Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, and hence should be excused for three weeks.Meanwhile, Suresh Gopi, the celebrity lawmaker of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in the upper house of parliament, is likely to appear before the team today as directed by the high court which stayed his arrest for three weeks.A team led by the crime branch’s temple anti-theft squad superintendent of police (SP), Santosh K V, is investigating the cases registered on complaints of the state’s motor vehicles department.Paul registered her S-Class Benz, priced at Rs11.2mn by paying a tax of Rs175,000, whereas the levy would have been around Rs2mn in Kerala. After the issue snowballed into a controversy, Faasil paid Rs1.768mn at the Alappuzha regional transport office for his Benz E Class.