TMC MP Tapas Pal arrested by CBI in Rose Valley chit fund scam case

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Kolkata: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday arrested Trinamool Congress MP Tapas Pal in connection with the Rose Valley chit fund scam.

Pal was arrested by the central probe agency after four hours of questioning.

Tapas Pal, who was director in two companies of Rose Valley, had been under the Enforcement Directorate (ED) scanner for some time. 

The ED had earlier arrested Gautam Kundu, the chairman of Rose Valley Group of Companies.

Kundu was arrested following his questioning in a ponzi scam where investors were allegedly duped to the tune of nearly Rs 15,484 crore.

Kundu was arrested under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. 

The CBI, too, had recently intensified its investigation into the Rose Valley chit fund scam case and conducted raids at 43 locations, including at the residences and offices of Gautam Kundu and other directors. 

The raids were also conducted at Tapas Pal’s residence in South Kolkata.

The ED, under the stringent provisions of the PMLA, had earlier attached 2,631 bank accounts of the Rose Valley group containing Rs 295 crore.

Gautam Kundu had started off with investment schemes and times share schemes of various kinds and is said to have raised over Rs 15,000 crore, which is six times higher than Saradha group’s collection from the market.

The group had allegedly floated a total of 27 companies for running the alleged chit fund operations out of which only half-a-dozen were active.

Like Saradha Group, the Rose Valley group too has a diversified business activities like hotels, entertainment, cinema production etc, most of which had been questioned by SEBI.

With PTI inputs