ED seizes ₹10-cr assets of 'Robot' director

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached three immovable properties worth over ₹10 crore owned by film director and producer S Shankar under the stringent Prevention of Money Laundering Act, in connection with a complaint that accused him of plagiarism in the Rajinikanth-starrer 2010 movie Enthiran (Robot).

- Neeraj Chauhan

NEW DELHI:

The financial crime probe agency was acting on a complaint filed by an individual named Aarur Tamilnadan, who alleged that the storyline of the movie Enthiran (Robot) was copied from a story titled Jiguba authored by him, thereby rendering Shankar liable for violations under the Copyright Act, 1957, and the (then) Indian Penal Code.

To be sure, the Copyright Act, 1957, is classified as a scheduled offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and action for violations has been taken in the past in some cases. However, it is the first time that the financial crimes probe agency has put its resources into probing the origins of a movie's storyline.