Rose Valley case: Bizmen along with politicians, filmmakers devised calculative ways to trap depositors, says Orissa HC

CUTTACK

: The Orissa high court has held that the “calculative devilish methods” of the Rose Valley Group of Companies “designed by business tycoons” were able to trap depositors “with the active support of politicians and film personalities”.


Justice SK Sahoo observed, “Rose valley was a bed of roses for its promoters and directors, but it created a bed of thorns for the gullible investors.” The court made the observation on Monday while rejecting the bail plea of Shrikant Mohta, a well-known producer of Bengali films arrested by CBI sleuths on January 24 for his alleged links with Rose Valley, one of the major players in the unauthorized deposit collection scam.

Mohta had moved the Orissa high court after his bail plea was rejected by the court of sessions judge (Khurda) in Bhubaneswar on February 14.

Justice Sahoo observed, “The spider web was designed in such a calculative devilish way by the business tycoons showing mirage of huge outturn with active support of politicians and film personalities that it trapped the depositors who were left only with tears in their eyes that never dried up.”

“Considering the nature and gravity of the accusation, strong prima facie case available against the petitioner to show his involvement in the economic offence committed by Rose Valley, likelihood of tampering with the evidence when the investigation is at a crucial stage and several bank accounts of the petitioner and his company are under scrutiny to trace any further money transactions with Rose Valley and, above all, in the larger interest of society, I am not inclined to release the petitioner on bail,” Justice Sahoo said in his May 13 order, a full text of which is with TOI.

According to the order, CBI had during investigations found alleged exchange of money between Mohta and Gautam Kundu, founder of the Rose Valley Group of Companies. The investigations had further indicated that Mohta had allegedly misappropriated huge amount of money in the name of producing films and siphoned off this money, which was illegally collected by Rose Valley’s ponzi schemes from depositors.

Touted as the mother of all chit fund scams, the Rose Valley Group allegedly cheated depositors of nearly Rs 17,000 crore, at least four times more than the Saradha Group. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had on November 27, 2014 attached Rose Valley’s bank accounts worth Rs 295 crore in 2,807 accounts across the country.

Mohta is accused of entering into a conspiracy with Rose Valley and embezzling nearly Rs 24 crore on the pretext of producing films. The CBI said, “Mohta, co-founder of Shree Venkatesh Films (SVF), siphoned off the staggering amount, illegally collected by Rose Valley from gullible investors in West

Bengal

, Assam and Odisha.”