Bollywood / I have 54,000 unread mails, it won't even take 18 hours to finish ₹18 crore: Sonu Sood

Mumbai: Actor Sonu Sood came under the scanner for the tax evasion and illegal funds, followed by which raids were conducted at his Mumbai residence and office. The actor has finally opened up about the same in an interview with NDTV. The actor as reported by the portal stated providing all the required information to the tax officials during the raid. In addition to this, he also stated answering all the questions, which were part of this investigation.

He told the news channel, “Whatever documents, details they asked for, we gave. Whatever questions they asked, I answered. I did my part, they did theirs. Whatever questions they raised, we answered each and every one of them with documents. That's my duty. We are still providing documents…it is part of the process.” He added, “I make sure every single penny donated by anyone in this universe is accounted for.” On being asked by IT department for violating the law, he said, “Of course not.”

From being accused of evading taxes incurred on the sum of Rs 20 crore to being questioned that Rs. 1.9 crore being used for relief work despite receiving a donation of Rs. 20 crore, the actor replied to all these accusations. He said, “It is very surprising. Whatever we collect is not just money donated by citizens. A chunk of that is also my remuneration from brand endorsements. I ask them to donate to charity which can save lives.”

Speaking about the messages he receives on various platforms seeking help in the COVID-19 pandemic he said, “I have 54,000 unread mails, thousands of messages on WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter.  It will not even take 18 hours to finish 18 crores. But I have to make sure every single penny is used in a proper way, for a genuine and needy person.”

He also stated that not a single penny went into his account, rather it directly went into the ones who needed it. He was questioned about receiving foreign funding on an illegal scale, to which he replied, “Can't get a single dollar into my account.”

When it came to the details he kept for the transactions he made, he shared the tax officials too agreed with him that he did “good work” He said, “I asked them – have you ever seen this kind of documentation, details, paperwork? They said no…they were also happy with whatever they were seeing. They said it was the smoothest four days of raids for them.

When some of the political parties claimed the raids happened due to his collaboration with Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), he replied, “I am not allying with AAP. You call me into any state – Karnataka, Gujarat, I will go immediately, like magic. I have worked in all states -- those ruled by BJP, Congress.”

He mentioned turning down offers to be a Rajya Sabha member, as he doesn’t feel he is ready for it. “I declined two offers of Rajya Sabha seats from two different parties. Mentally I was not ready. I am currently happy in my place. Whenever I am ready, I will shout from the rooftops that I am ready,” said the actor.

Assuring they will continue with his charity work, he said, “I didn't start to stop. It's just the beginning.” The actor during the pandemic helped numerous people in terms of their commute, education, medical and more, by providing them help when needed.