Producer Dinesh Vijan under ED scanner after Sushant's Rs 17 crore payment goes missing

In a big development, according to a India Today report the Enforcement Directorate (ED), while probing the money angle in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case, has found a suspicious payment worth crores, allegedly made to the Kedarnath actor. The report further adds that the  suspicious 'missing' payment, according to sources, is said to be of around Rs 17 crore. It mentions that the said payment, which is being investigated, was for a film named Raabta that released in 2017. Sushant Singh Rajput and Kriti Sanon were the lead pair in the film. Producer Dinesh Vijan was questioned by the agency last month and was asked to submit some documents related to the payments made to Sushant Singh Rajput for the film. As per sources, Dinesh Vijan had submitted some documents but failed to submit details of the shoot budget for the overseas shoot that was carried out for the film in Hungary.

For the unversed, film producers get perks in form of payments if they shoot overseas and it could be around twenty percent of the total budget spent on shoot in the respective country. This is also called as overseas payment perk. It is suspected that producers show inflated expenditure to foreign governments, especially in the European countries, to avail the payment perks and use it to pay actors working with them in the respective film or pocket it. Further, it is suspected that the money is then routed to India through hawala channels from the respective foreign country . When Vijan failed to submit the said document, it was followed by a search at his residence and office on October 14. During the search, ED officials had found documents pertaining to the budget and expenditure of the film submitted to authorities at Budapest in Hungary. The budget for the said film in the document was around Rs 50 crore. The document also said that of the total amount of Rs 50 crore, Rs 17 crore were paid to Sushant Singh Rajput.

The money laundering angle emerged in the late actor's death case after allegations were made by Sushant Singh Rajput's father, that a sum of Rs 15 crore had been siphoned off from the late actor's account by Rhea Chakraborty, her family members, Sushant's staffers Shruti Modi and Samuel Miranda. However, in 2016, when Sushant was working on the film Raabta, he was not dating Rhea. The missing payment is suspicious in nature and Dinesh Vijan, despite repeated questioning, failed to provide details on where and how the payment was made to Sushant Singh Rajput and where did the money go if such payment was done. The report mentions hat Dinesh Vijan is presently in Dubai and when summoned by the ED, he provided his medical certificate, stating that he has been infected by Covid-19 and is recuperating presently. Earlier, nforcement Directorate (ED) conducted a raid at filmmaker and producer Dinesh Vijan’s home as well as the office of Maddock Films, a production house founded by him. Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead at his Bandra apartment on June 14. While the ED is probing the money laundering angle in the case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is probing the cause of death. The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) is investigating the drug angle.