Rose Valley scam: ED attaches properties worth Rs 293 crore

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday attached properties worth Rs 293 crore of the Rose Valley Group.

With the attachment of properties in Bengal, Assam and Odisha on Friday, the total worth of property of the group that has been attached so far by the investigating agency stands at Rs 1,950 crore.

Both CBI and ED had initiated probes into the scam of the Rose Valley group that had collected crores of rupees from common people through its chit fund schemes.

Preliminary investigation had revealed that the group had collected the fund through the chit fund schemes without having necessary clearances or permissions from the concerned authorities including RBI and Sebi. A provisional attachment order under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has been issued by the ED.

The ED officials had raided different places including some of the group's properties including hotels to attach them.

The ED had initiated a probe in this connection in 2014 to investigate into the money trail. The CBI had also initiated the investigation at the same time and had questioned the chief of the group Gautam Kundu. Finally, Kundu was arrested in 2015.

Soon after taking up the probe, the ED had frozen all the bank accounts of the group. Kundu had approached the ED to not freeze the bank accounts through which salaries of the employees of his company were being released. But the plea was not accepted. It may be recalled that Kundu had floated around 15 different companies under one umbrella to collect money through chit fund schemes in different names. According to the ED officers, the group had collected around Rs 13,000 crore through chit fund and a major part of it was invested in developing hotels and resorts. Kundu had also invested the money in entertainment industry including production of films. Cases were initiated both in Kolkata and Bhubaneswar as the group had collected a huge amount of money from Odisha.