CBI arrests Rose Valley Group chief Kundu

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday arrested Gautam Kundu, the chairman of Rose Valley Group in a money laundering and ponzi scam case.

The ED, which has been probing the money trail in chit fund scam in West Bengal, believes that the purported Rose Valley scam is around Rs 12,000 crore, around six times the size of the Saradha scam.

Kundu was arrested on Wednesday after several hours of questioning at the city office of the central agency.

According to sources in the ED, Kundu was not cooperating with the officials.

Sources in the agency, which looks into foreign exchange violations, also said that the Rose Valley Group claimed to collect money from the unsuspecting public under a time-share scheme and had raised upwards of Rs 10,000 crore.

Even though Kundu reportedly claimed during interrogation that his group had several hotels across India and the deposits collected could be easily redeemed on maturity in the form of accommodation at these hotels, ED officials believe they have enough evidence to prove that the scheme was just an eyewash since money was collected from depositor promising cash repayment. ED officials further said that the group operated Ponzi schemes promising huge returns.

Kundu has been interrogated a number of times since 2013 and in November 2014 the agency sealed at least 250 bank accounts of the group, besides seizing around Rs 300 crore from some other bank accounts operated by the group.