Sonu Sood’s philanthropic work requires no introduction, the actor has rightly been called ‘Messiah’ by the fans and the public fondly.
However, recently, Sonu was under the scanner of the Income Tax department. The officials had accused Sonu and his aides of evading taxes over 20 crores!
Reacting to the tax evasion allegations, Sonu had issued a statement insisting that every rupee in his foundation was for the needy.
In conversation with NDTV, the philanthropist denied the accusations of tax evasion and illegal funding.
The tax department had alleged that out of ₹ 18 crore donation collection, Sonu’s charity had spent only ₹ 1.9 crore on relief work. To this Sonu had replied – “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.”
“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.”
Sonu further clarified to NDTV, that the money hadn’t been lying around for years but merely a few months as he had to do his due diligence.
Sonu also reacted to the allegation of receiving illegal foreign funding – “I can’t get a single dollar into my account. The money is going directly to beneficiaries.”
Sonu elaborated that he had given his utmost co-operation to the officials.
“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,” Sonu told NDTV.
Sonu recently became the brand ambassador for Delhi Government’s ‘Desh Ka Mentor’ initiative. When asked if he was being politically targeted, Sonu responded –
“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 was also asked whether he was ready to join politics, but he confessed to having turned down TWO RAJYA SABHA seats.
“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.”
Sonu concluded by saying he would continue with charity no matter what. “I didn’t start to stop. It’s just the beginning.”
