Rose Valley agents under economic offences wing scanner

BHUBANESWAR: The economic offences wing (EOW) of state Crime Branch will interrogate around 120 Rose Valley agents, who were paid hefty commission for collecting money from gullible depositors. It coincided with an EOW team visiting Kolkata on Friday to extract more information against Rose Valley boss Gautam Kundu, currently in four-day custody of the probe agency.
The EOW has been investigating at least 23 police cases registered against the Rose Valley in different districts since 2013-14.CBI, which was asked by the Supreme Court in May 2014 to investigate scams of 44 chit fund companies in Odisha, West Bengal and Assam, took up the investigation of a Rose Valley case in Balasore district in May 2014.
“We will interrogate the heavily-paid agents, who were getting at least 25 percent commission on each collection. Kundu told us that his company collected nearly Rs 490 crore in Odisha and refunded Rs 130 crore to the depositors,” special director general (crime) B K Sharma said.
Rose Valley had mobilised over 300 agents and opened 65 branches across the state to collect deposits from people. EOW sources said at least 4 lakh depositors in the state had invested money in the company between 2007 and 2013 with the hope of getting quick returns.
In Kolkata, the five-member EOW team headed by a DSP questioned Kundu’s chartered accountant and got a list of investors of Odisha. However, the EOW did not divulge the exact number of depositors mentioned in the list.
Meanwhile, the EOW is likely to interrogate owner of an Odisha-based news channel for his alleged involvement in the Rose Valley scam. “Kundu revealed that the paid lakhs of rupees in cheques to the channel’s owner as the former was planning to purchase his media setup in Bhubaneswar. We are examining the channel owner’s possible conspiracy and criminal culpability in the scam,” another EOW officer said. EOW said they are undecided whether or not to question two Trinamool MPs Tapas Pal and Sudip Bandyopadhyay, who were arrested by the CBI in the Rose Valley scam.