The Enforcement Directorate has intensified the crackdown while probing the multi-crore Rose Valley Chit fund scam. Currently, the ED is conducting raids at five different places in Kolkata related to the case. Two locations are reportedly in the New Town area in eastern fringes of Kolkata, one in Dunlop which falls in the municipality of North 24 Parganas district and others near the southern fringes of the city.
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According to reports, one of it is a residential property which belongs to one of the brokers who allegedly had a link with the prime accused Gautam Kundu.
The raids are currently underway and more details are awaited.
The ED had registered a case on the basis of an FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The agency is investigating the cases against Rose Valley Group of Companies, run by the Group’s Chairman Gautam Kundu, for laundering of funds received from the public by way of Ponzi scheme.
According to the ED estimates, the Rose Valley scam is at least five times the Saradha ponzi scam. The group allegedly floated 27 companies to run various schemes. It allegedly collected Rs.17,520 crore from depositors in West Bengal, Assam and Bihar.
The agency had registered an FIR against its Chairman Gautam Kundu and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in 2014 and arrested him on March 25, 2015. The ED also attached his assets worth Rs 2,300 crore, including hotels and resorts. Multiple charge sheets had been filed by the ED in the courts of Kolkata and Bhubaneswar.
In September 2019, ED conducted raids at multiple locations linked to Income Tax Commissioner, Neeraj Singh, in connection with a money laundering case associated with an alleged disproportionate assets case. Singh is also under the scanner of the Kolkata Police and the ED for alleged links with the prime accused of the Rs 15,000-crore Rose Valley chit fund scam Gautam Kundu.
Read: West Bengal government obstructing investigations in Saradha Chit Fund Scam: CBI
Another big name had surfaced in connection with the multi-crore Rose Valley scam, as the Enforcement Directorate summoned Shah Rukh Khan owned Kolkata Knight Rider CEO Venky Mysore to the CGO complex in Salt Lake, Kolkata, on Friday morning to question him regarding the financial transaction between Shah Rukh Khan owned Red Chillies and Rose Valley.
ED had also summoned Bengali superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee in connection with the multi-crore scam. Prosenjit Chatterjee has been regularly spotted at many Rose Valley events with the main accused Gautam Kundu.
Prior to this, Chief of Shree Venkatesh Films and Mamata Banerjee’s close aide, Srikant Mohta had been arrested in January 2019 by the CBI in connection with the Rose Valley scam. The Bengali film producer and distributor was then interrogated by the CBI at his offices. He was served a notice by the agency regarding “acceptance of money from Rose Valley”.
Apart from these, several top leaders of the Trinamool Congress are named in the chit fund scam and facing investigation.
The ED had earlier also interrogated TMC leader Madan Mitra in connection with the scandal. He was interrogated for more than four hours.