A Chennai court has levied a fine of Rs 500 and chided actor Vishal for wantonly delaying legal proceedings in a case filed by the city’s zonal unit of GST department over non-payment of service tax by his company.
The Chennai zonal unit of the GST department had reportedly issued at least 10 summons to the actor between 2016 and 2018. When Vishal failed to appear for inquiry despite these summons, the tax body decided to take the matter to court.
After going through the submissions, the additional chief metropolitan magistrate noted that the non-appearance of the actor in the matter shows “malafide intention” to disrupt the probe and escape from the clutches of the law.
However, as Vishal had subsequently complied after the case was filed, the magistrate added that lenient punishment was sufficient and thus a minimal fine of Rs 500 was imposed on the actor.
The magistrate also strongly condemned the actor’s behaviour vis-a-vis delaying the legal process. “It may be true that he is a very busy person involved in very many activities. But, at the same time, he has a bounden duty to comply with the summons issued by the authorities under the judicial proceedings and to cooperate with them. The circumstances show that but for the issuance of summons in this complaint, he would not have attempted to appear before the complainant for the enquiry,” said the magistrate.
Meanwhile, on the work front, Vishal, who was last seen in Enemy, recently wrapped up the shoot of Veerame Vaagai Soodum, directed by Thu Pa Saravanan. The actor is also producing the film under his home banner Vishal Film Factory.
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Vishal earlier announced that the title of his upcoming pan-Indian film with filmmaker Adhik Ravichandran is Mark Anthony. It was also revealed that SJ Suryah will be co-starring in the family-oriented action film that is set to go on floors in February.
Vishal also has the films Laththi and Thupparivaalan 2 in the pipeline.