ED raids firm linked to producers of Mohanlal-starrer Empuraan: Reports

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) reportedly conducted raids at a chit fund firm linked to one of the producers of Mohanlal-starrer film L2:Empuraan amid controversy.

Sources told India Today that the Enforcement Directorate is searching the premises of Gokulam chit funds in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and a few other states.

Kerala-based businessman AM Gopalan, also known as Gokulam Gopalan, owns Sree Gokulam Chits, India Today reported. He has offices in several states including Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Puducherry, Maharashtra, New Delhi, Andhra Pradesh Pondicherry and Haryana.

What's the case?

The searches were part of an investigation into an alleged 1,000 crore foreign exchange violation case, official sources told news agency PTI.

The searches were undertaken at five locations, including Chennai, Tamil Nadu, and Kochi, Kerala, under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), the sources said.

The action is being undertaken against Gopalan and his company Sree Gopalan chit and Finance Co. Ltd. for alleged FEMA violations of ₹1,000 crore with certain NRIs and some related "unauthorised" transactions, the sources.

The agency is also understood to be analysing some "cheating" cases against the company for possible investigation under the anti-money laundering law.

Empuraan controversy

Gopalan is one of the producers of film L2: Empuraan, the reports stated.

Soon after its threatre release last month, Empuraan got embroiled in a controversy.

L2: Empuraan is the second part of the "Lucifer" movie. It's a trilogy planned by the Prithviraj-Mohanlal team.

The Malayalam movie became a topic of hot debate over its critique of right-wing politics and the covert mention of the Gujarat riots.

Mohanlal recently expressed regret over the raging row and assured that the controversial portions would be removed from the movie.

According to several reports, around 17 scenes are likely to be cut from the Mohanlal starrer movie L2: Empuraan.

(With inputs from agencies)