ED TAKES OVER ₹304-CR ASSETS IN ROSE VALLEY CASE

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has taken possession of movable and immovable properties worth ₹304 crore belonging to the Rose Valley Group as part of its money laundering probe related to Ponzi schemes, the agency said on Friday.

“Investigation under PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) has revealed that several properties in West Bengal, Odisha, Tripura, Assam, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and others states were acquired in the name of various companies of Rose Valley Group, by illegally diverting the funds collected from the common public,” ED said in a statement.

The agency said that it had undertaken a special drive to take over properties of the Rose Valley Group in West Bengal, Tripura and Odisha under PMLA. It ultimately took into its possession 412 movable properties amounting to ₹47 crore and 426 immovable properties amounting to ₹257 crore.

After due investigation, the central agency attached the properties that were found to have been acquired from the proceeds of crime (amount collected by way of selling fake and fictitious schemes) and the orders of provisional attachment of the said properties were confirmed by the adjudicating authority (PMLA), New Delhi.

The agency also filed its prosecution complaints against the above mentioned companies and its directors before a special PMLA court. \According to the ED, investigation revealed that Rose Valley Group had collected over ₹17,520 crore “by luring depositors with false promise of high return/interest on their deposits”. Of the total, only ₹10,850 crores was refunded to the public. The remaining ₹6,670 crore constitutes the proceeds of crime, ED said. With Monday’s development, the total market value of properties attached so far rose to around ₹4,750 crore. In 2014, the ED had filed a criminal case of money laundering against the firm and its chairman Gautam Kundu who was arrested from Kolkata in 2015.

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