Economic offences wing pins hope on Rose Valley boss to identify duped depositors

BHUBANESWAR: The

economic offences wing

(EOW) of state Crime Branch has pinned hope on

Rose Valley boss

Gautam Kundu to identify the genuine duped depositors in Odisha so that they get compensation from the state government.

EOW, which on Wednesday took Kundu on four more days of remand, said he assured to furnish the list of around 4 lakh duped depositors of Odisha within a week. On May 6, the EOW had taken Kundu on four-day remand, which was extended to another four days on Wednesday.

Though the company is accused of cheating depositors of nearly Rs 17,000 crore across the country, the volume of fraud in Odisha stands at nearly Rs 500 crore. While CBI currently probes one of the 25 cases registered against Rose Valley in the state, EOW still investigates the remaining cases.

“We will further interrogate Kundu in our custody and get from him details about the investors. Later, physical verification of the genuine investors will be made by revenue and police officials in districts. Kundu told us that he already asked his chartered accountant to prepare the list of duped depositors in Odisha. This will expedite the restitution process,” special director general (crime) B K Sharma told TOI.

The EOW said it already has the possession of Rose Valley properties worth over Rs 78.18 crore, including Rs 55 crore bank deposits. “Once the genuine investors are identified, the government can disburse at least Rs 10,000 each to 78000 duped investors,” another officer said.

Identification of the genuine investors of Rose Valley and other chit fund companies has been stuck in limbo ever since the state government started the process in July-August 2013. A judicial commission was specially set up to identify the investors.

Official sources said the commission has so far identified nearly 21,000 Rose Valley depositors. But restitution of the money to depositors has not yet started though the government announced Rs 300 crore corpus fund for the purpose in July 2013. Besides, the state government has been facing difficulty in auctioning the assets of chit fund companies, including Rose Valley due to poor participation of bidders. Sources said three small chit fund companies so far voluntarily returned money to the tune of nearly Rs 2 crore to about 10,000 people in the state.

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