CBI raids Trinamool MP’s home, 47 other locations
Bengali film actor Tapas Paul comes under scanner
Armed with inputs from Enforcement Directorate (ED), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday carried out searches at the residential flat of Trinamool Congress MP and Bengali film actor, Tapas Paul, in South Kolkata.
The raid was held as part of the CBI's search operations in 47 offices of Rose Valley, the second largest chit fund after Saradha Group, operating in ten states. The CBI conducted the raid in one of the flats of the Trinamool Congress MP from Krishnanagar to ascertain his involvement with the tainted chit fund.
Due to unavailability of the keys, the sleuths could not enter another flat of the MP. They also conducted raid at the residence of the Chairman of Rose Valley, Goutam Kundu, from where they confiscated some documents through which they came to know about the involvement of the Trinamool Congress MP. It was learnt that Paul used to get money from the Rose Valley group and that his wife had signed an agreement with the Rose Valley group.
The raid in Paul’s house continued for more than four hours. The CBI officials could not interrogate Paul. Residential premises of the company's directors including Abir Kundu, Ramlal Goswami and Ashok Saha were also searched.
Earlier, the CBI had arrested two Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MPs---Kunal Ghosh and Srinjoy Bose and West Bengal Transport Minister Madan Mitra for their alleged involvement in the Sardha chit fund scam.
The agency had also interrogated Trinamool Congress MP and former railway minister Mukul Roy for his alleged involvement in the Saradha scam.
CBI conducted search operations in Rose Valley group offices in Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Assam, Tripura and Orissa. The CBI
had
conducted search operations in 27 offices of the Rose Valley group in West Bengal including in Baguiati, Barasat, salt Lakh, Kasba, Sector 5, Purba Midnapore and in Nadia.
Earlier, the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate had summoned Goutam Kundu and interrogated him. ED has attached 2,631 bank accounts of the Rose Valley group containing Rs 295 crore under the stringent provisions of the anti-money laundering law. The attachment order issued by the Kolkata Zonal office of the agency under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has frozen the bank accounts, both in private and public sector, in the states of West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, Tripura, Assam and Himachal Pradesh.