Gautam Kundu: This man has duped investors of Rs 15, 484 crore

By Newsgram Staff Writer

Gautam Kundu, Chairman of Rose Valley companies was arrested by Enforcement Directorate(ED) yesterday for his alleged involvement in the ponzi scams executed by this consortium of companies.

The ED estimates investors were duped by this group to the tune of Rs. 15,484 crore.

"Kundu has been arrested under the criminal charges and provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. He will produced in a court tomorrow," ED officials said.

He was interrogated in the ED's Salt Lake office in Kolkata for nearly five hours after which the arrest took place.

The necessary steps were taken after a prosecution was filed against the set of companies by SEBI for "unauthorized issue of debentures" and violations under the Corporate Affairs Act.

The probe also came up with a suspense that Gautam was a beneficiary of this tainted funds generated as proceeds of crime of the chit fund scam.

According to the Calcutta High Court order no coercive action could be taken against Gautam Kundu earlier. The agency, however, got that order vacated from Patna High Court and also from the Calcutta High Court.

This case is also being probed by CBI now.

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. After the bank accounts were frozen, the corporate name was changed to Sun City Group and Chocolate Group. 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. It is alleged that the firm had floated the scheme by promising inflated returns on investments between eight and 27 per cent to gullible investors in various states.

The company had also promised returns to the investors on properties,assets and real estate. It had also made cross investments in its various sister firms.