After the I-T Dept raided Sonu Sood’s offices, property, and residence earlier this month, he released a statement on social media. He said that every rupee in his foundation is “awaiting its turn to save a life.” He also criticized the Income Tax department, stating that he had been “busy attending to guests” for four days.

“You don’t always have to tell your side of the story. Time will,” the actor said in a statement he tweeted along with a couplet in Hindu, loosely translated as – “even the most difficult path can seem easy with the goodwill of every Indian.”

The 48-year-old actor, who became a philanthropist following the Covid crisis and earned huge praise, was raided for four consecutive days by the I.T Department, the allegations are claiming that he has dodged paying short taxes worth more than 20 crores.

The ruling Shiv Sena in Maharashtra and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have questioned the timing of the Income Tax searches and they link it to his recent partnership with AAP for an education mentorship program.

The Aam Aadmi Party Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted back to the actor’s statement: “More power to you Sonu Ji. You are a hero to millions of Indians.”

The tax office released a statement stating that Sonu Sood’s non-profit charity had collected over ₹ 18 crores, out of which ₹ 1.9 crores has been spent on relief work and ₹ 17 crores has been lying unused. The organization raised an amount of Rs 2.1 crore from overseas donors running a crowdfunding platform.

“The main modus operandi followed by the actor had been to route his unaccounted income in the form of bogus unsecured loans from many bogus entities,” the tax department said in the statement.