ED searches at Empuraan producer’s Tamil Nadu, Kerala premises

“Currently, five premises are covered (under the raids). The case relates to alleged violations of various FEMA provisions worth Rs 1,000 crore with NRIs and other unauthorised transactions. The ED is also verifying alleged cheating and forgery cases registered against the company under PMLA,” ED officers claimed.

The searches, carried out by the Kerala wing of the ED, began Friday morning with at least 10 personnel arriving at the offices of Sree Gokulam Chit and Finance in Chennai’s Kodambakkam area. Another team landed at Gopalan’s farmhouse at Neelankarai in Chennai city.

The ED action comes just days after the release of Mohanlal-starrer Empuraan, which was co-produced by Gopalan along with Antony Perumbavoor, Mohanlal’s close aide, and Lyca Productions’ Subaskaran Allirajah. Gopalan was a late entrant into the production, at a time when the film’s release was delayed over financial troubles faced by Lyca Productions.

The film, a sequel to the 2019 blockbuster Lucifer and part of a trilogy directed by Prithviraj Sukumaran, sparked controversy soon after its March 27 release. Right-wing groups, including sections of the RSS, accused the film of vilifying Hindus by depicting scenes from the 2002 Gujarat riots and using the names of individuals involved in cases related to the riots.

The backlash prompted producers to mute certain dialogues and remove scenes. This voluntary censorship involved the deletion of 2.08 minutes from the film.

Gopalan was the first to come out to say that changes would be made in the film in the wake of the backlash. “The film was not intended to hurt anyone. If any dialogue or scene in the film hurt anyone, I told Prithviraj Sukumaram to make the necessary changes. Certain words have already been muted. There is a protest against certain things in the film. I have asked the director to make the necessary changes. We are not involved in any politics,” Gopalan had told the media at the time.

Subsequently, Mohanlal also issued an apology and said that the contentious content had been removed.

Gopalan, a businessman with interests in hospitality, healthcare, education, media, cinema, logistics, and transport, and his Sree Gokulam Group are widely known across South India, with its flagship chit fund operations servicing thousands of customers in India and abroad.

Gopalan was unavailable for comment on the ED action.