ED documents forged for extortion, central agency lodges FIR with West Bengal Police
Kolkata: In a major development, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has lodged an FIR with the West Bengal Police to investigate into the criminal conspiracy of extortion of money through the circulation of forged documents related to ponzi scheme scams.
Incidentally, those forged documents were the major backbone of contention of the growing tension between the Centre and state government as those fabricated circulated papers contained names of various important political personalities.
It is suspected that this group of extortionists has contacted many of these political leaders and private businessmen and extorted huge amounts of money promising them to get rid of those cases.
A complaint was lodged by assistant director of ED Nirmal Kumar Mosha (FIR number 140/20) with Bidhannagar North police station on September 9. The FIR clearly mentions the name of one of the suspects — Sudipto Roy Chowdhury — who was earlier arrested by ED itself in November 2018 as he was well connected with Goutam Kundu, whose name also surfaced in the FIR, and his direct connection with a company named "Brand Value Communications" that was owned by Kundu. Roy Chowdhury, who is presently on bail, was close to Left leaders in South 24-Parganas and had allegedly extorted money from several people, including businessmen, under the pretext of settling their matters in several chit fund cases that are being investigated by the CBI and the ED.
According to sources, the involvement of two journalists working for leading news channels is not being ruled out in this connection. It is suspected that this gang of extortionists has used the service of the journalists in circulating those fake documents attracting bad repute to the ED.
The possibility of involvement of some insiders is also not being ruled out as the group was extorting the individuals by sending them "replicas of original documents" that are being used by the national investigating agencies for summons. Subsequently, they used to receive calls about the summons as well. At the same time, the extortionists used to utilise the panicky situation of the affected individuals to offer them a deal to settle the matter. Being in dire straits, many are even suspected to have fallen into their trap. Several complaints were being sent in this regard to the ED's headquarter at Khan Market's Loknayak Bhawan in New Delhi.
The FIR was lodged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on charges of cheating (420 IPC), forgery (468 IPC), fraudulent use of genuine documents or electronic records (471 IPC), making or possessing counterfeit seal with intent to commit forgery (472 IPC), having possession of forged documents (474 IPC) and Criminal Conspiracy (120B).
At such a crucial stage of the probe into the Rose Valley Group's ponzi scheme scam, the top brass of the ED has observed that "some unscrupulous efforts are being made with an ulterior motive for cheating authorities itself and there is a mala fide intent to mislead, obstruct and misdirect the course of investigation" as forged, tampered and superimposed documents were sent to different authorities and individuals. Such a document has been enclosed by the ED in its complaint to the police and preliminary investigation by ED in this regard has established that its official stamps and officers' signatures were being superimposed to cheat people.
The ED has further stated that "another letter under a stolen identity of a Rose Valley Group official was also sent to different authorities including the investigating agency's headquarters in New Delhi containing names of different ED officers who are involved in the Rose Valley Group's ponzi scheme scam probe and attachment of its properties". The ED itself undertook a preliminary investigation after receiving the letter. The Rose Valley Group officials denied sending such a letter when their statements were recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). So the ED officers are "strongly suspecting that some of the accused in the Rose Valley case are behind these acts and the role of Sudipto Roy Chowdhury is strongly suspected in running this racket of extortion, forgery and cheating".
According to sources in the Bidhannagar Commissionerate, the case would be taken up by its Detective Department. Though a team comprising the detective department's officers has been formed, the process of taking over the case from Bidhannagar North police station is yet to be completed. Since the ponzi scheme probes were ordered by the Supreme Court, the investigating authorities are looking into all modalities of the same.
