From Bhupen Goswami
GUWAHATI : The CBI has filed a supplementary chargesheet in Tripura against Gautam Kundu and others, the mastermind suo-founder of the Rosevalley chit fund scam. A senior CBI official said in Guwahati today that Rose Valley Group Chairman Gautam Kundu had 700 acres, 23 hotels, around 150 cars spread across 12 states, including a dozen imported luxury vehicles, 900 branch offices and 3078 bank accounts. Kundu, who is currently in jail, has about 23 hotels across the country, including luxury properties in Jaipur, Jalpaiguri, East Midnapore, Siliguri and Kolkata. It has seven premium residences on the northern edge of Kolkata; A 6,000 square feet villa and a gold and diamond jewellery mall were also found in Ranchi.
In its chargesheet filed in a district court in Tripura against the rose valley group company, the CBI alleged that the Kolkata-based company collected more than Rs 12,0000 crore from gullible investors by luring them with attractive profits on land booking. The Rose Valley group is under investigation in the over thousands of crores of rupees chit fund scam. The money collected in violation of the Companies Act and securities and exchange board of India (SEBI) rules was allegedly transferred to loss making group companies. A senior CBI official said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a supplementary chargesheet against Rose Valley Real Estate and Construction Limited, its chairman Gautam Kundu and others in the Ponzi scam case in Tripura. In its chargesheet filed in a district court in Tripura against the rose valley group company, the CBI alleged that the Kolkata-based company collected more than Rs 31 crore by luring gullible investors with attractive profits on land booking.
Rose Valley Group is also under investigation in the Ponzi scam worth over Rs 12,000 crore. The money collected in violation of the Companies Act and securities and exchange board of India (SEBI) rules was allegedly transferred to loss making group companies. The CBI in the supplementary chargesheet alleged that Kundu and his officials opened several bank accounts in the name of the company, became signatories to these bank accounts and sent the money to another place as per their interest. CBI spokesperson R G Joshi said the probe also revealed that the accused, contrary to the true facts of the company’s business, used to spread false propaganda about the group earning high profits. He appointed a large number of agents and motivated them to bring in deposits with commissions and incentives in violation of company (sanction of deposit) rules.
The central agency investigating the Ponzi scam case since 2014 said that the accused launched a scheme related to the flow of illegal money, Which was banned under the Prize Chit and Money Circulation Scheme (Ban) Act. “They (the accused) also motivated investors to invest money in various schemes of the said private company… Investors were cheated by the Amarpur branch of the accused company, Tripura, by not returning their investments and Rs 4.81 crore was allegedly misused by the accused. He said the CBI had registered a case on the orders of the Tripura High Court. According to a CBI report, gautam kundu, a relatively small firm operating outside Tripura with some business stake in Bengal, and Rose Valley’s meteor iced growth began when his elder brother’s car fell into a lake, killing his entire family. Kajal Kundu and his wife and son, who founded the company in 1997, were on their way to Guwahati from Agartala when they died in 2003 in an unexplained accident, after which Gautam Kundu took over as the firm.
