Searches in connection with alleged illegal transfer of money, the production house's payment gateways under scanner.
On Tuesday, the ED officials raided nearly ten places in Chennai of the properties of Lyca owned by British entrepreneur Allirajah Subaskaran.
Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials continued searching the properties of the movie production house, Lyca Productions, the maker of Ponniyin Selvan films, for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, 17 May.
On Tuesday, the ED inspected 10 properties of Lyca, owned by British entrepreneur Allirajah Subaskaran, in Chennai.
Accompanied by armed Central Reserve Police Force, officials searched Lyca’s offices at T Nagar, Adyar, MRC Nagar, Porur, and Karapakkam. Lyca CEO Tamil Kumaran’s residence at MRC Nagar was also searched.
The searches are related to a Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) charge against Lyca Productions, which also holds multiple brands including Lyca mobiles, a telecommunication company.
The ED has already filed a money-laundering case against Lyca. Further, the searches are reportedly being carried out based on a complaint accusing the production house of illegal money transfer.
According to ED sources, the movie production house had illegally transferred money to its parent company in Europe. The searches are being conducted under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The ED officials have also picked a Lyca official, Sudhakar, for questioning.
However, there was no information on any seizures during the raids.
“The payment gateways of the production house are being put under the scanner and the details of raid and seizures (if any) will be released soon after the entire raid is over,” an ED official told South First.
The searches come amidst the huge box office success of Mani Ratnam’s latest release Ponniyin Selvan-2 which is said to have raked in ₹400 crores at the box office.
The production house, launched in 2014, has been involved in the production and distribution of several South Indian films including the Ponniyin Selvan franchise and Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar-starrer 2.0. It also distributed blockbusters such as Jr NTR and Ram Charan-starrer RRR and Allu Arjun’s Pushpa: The Rise, Kaththi’, ‘Kolamaavu Kokila’, ‘Kaappaan, etc.
Rajinikanth-starrer Robo 2.0 was then projected to be the costliest film ever in the Indian cinema industry.
The production house is currently bankrolling Indian-2 featuring Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth’s Lal Salaam, and Ajith’s Vida Muyaarchi.
With over 16 companies, Lyca is operating in 16 countries in Europe, three in Africa, besides operations in the US, Australia, and Sri Lanka.
The Lyca group also owns LycaRemit, an online money transfer company in over 70 countries, and Lyca Insure, an insurance company in Europe.
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