Kochi: Actor Asif Ali on Monday was slapped with a legal notice for eviction from the property he had taken on rent in Panampilly Nagar to run a food joint ‘Waffle Street’ for not paying the rent.
The notice issued by the owner asked Asif Ali and three others to vacate the building within 15 days and also pay the rent amount of Rs 6.34 lakh and damages to the tune of Rs 1.50 lakh.
Brijeesh Mohammed, partner of Asif Ali, claimed that they had not wilfully committed any default or any violation. They had made an investment of Rs 80 lakh and all of a sudden the building owner planned to evict them from the premises, he said.
“After coming to know about their plan, we moved the civil court and obtained an injunction that eviction can only be following due process of law,” he said.
Owner Abdul Salam and his wife Shirina Abdul Salam issued the legal notice through advocate K. Shaj alleging that Asif Ali and his partners owed almost Rs 6.5 lakh as rent.
The owner argued that Asif Ali and his three partners had not remitted the monthly rent properly from the first month. Even the cheque in respect of the rent for the second month was dishonoured.
“The total arrears of rent that you four owe to my clients amount to Rs 6.34 lakh till date which includes the tax deducted by you at source from the rentals due to my client and which you have fraudulently and illegally failed to remit with the income tax,” the legal notice said.
The owner also argued that the four had given the premises on hire to film production companies for film shooting without permission and had illegally taken hire money from the film production companies.
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