A raid was conducted by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at the Chennai and Kerala offices of L2: Empuraan co-producer Gokulam Gopalan. Reports say the raid was conducted at Gokulam Chennai's Kodambakam-based chits and finance corporate office and Kozhikode-based Gokulam Grand corporate office and Gokulam Mall on Friday morning.
The raid reportedly pertains to a violation of the FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act). Officials from Kochi are also said to be involved.
Gokulam's offices have been the subject of raids in the past a few times, once on suspicion of income tax evasion and the other related to a customer of Gokulam who was involved in a bank fraud.
Many are speculating whether the raid is connected to the L2: Empuraan controversy. However, as per reports, the ED officials are focusing only on the FEMA violation.
Gokulam Gopalan came aboard the Mohanlal-starrer just days before its release, when an unresolved financial dispute between co-producer Antony Perumbavoor's Aashirvad Cinemas and Subskaran's Lyca Productions threatened to interfere with release plans. Gokulam settled the dispute by coming in place of Lyca.
L2: Empuraan, directed by Prithviraj Sukumaran and written by Murali Gopy, had kicked up a political storm over its references to the 2002 Gujarat riots and depicting one of the perpetrators as the antagonist, with right-wing outfits labelling the movie as "anti-RSS" and "anti-Hindu".
Following the backlash, actor Mohanlal apologised on Facebook, admitting that some parts of the film caused discomfort to certain people. He had also assured fans that contentious references would be removed from L2: Empuraan.
The makers decided to make get 24 cuts. Antony Perumbavoor revealed that the edits were done voluntarily and not because of political pressure.
