Kerala high court orders Amala Paul to appear before crime branch

The Kerala high court has directed actress Amala Paul to appear before the crime branch on 15 January in connection with the road tax evasion case.

Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan passed the order after hearing an anticipatory bail plea filed by the actress. The court, Vijayaraghavan said, will consider her plea after 10 days.

The actress is believed to have bought a Mercedes Benz car for Rs1.12 crore, in August, from a car dealer in Chennai. Amala resides in Kerala but the car has been registered in Pondicherry as the road tax to be paid in a Union Territory is much less than what one has to pay in a state. She is believed to have paid a road tax of Rs1.75 lakh, but would have had to pay Rs20 lakh more, if she had registered the vehicle in Kerala.  

According to media reports, Amala also used a false address to register her vehicle in Pondicherry. The address was traced to a student who categorically stated that he does not know the actress personally. Following this, an FIR was lodged against Amala in November last year.

The Kerala police’s crime branch had summoned the actress for interrogation on 19 December, but Amala failed to turn up citing a busy shooting schedule.