Assets worth Rs 70 crore of private firms, including actor Shah Rukh Khan-promoted company that owns the IPL cricket team of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), have been attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering probe in the Rose Valley scam case.
Besides the KKR Sports Pvt Ltd, promoted by Khan, the agency has attached assets of two other entities — Multiple Resorts Pvt Ltd and St Xavier’s College, Kolkata.
The Knight Riders Sports Pvt Ltd owns the KKR, and its directors include actor Shah Rukh Khan’s wife Gauri Khan as well as Jay Mehta, Bollywood actor Juhi Chawla’s husband.
“ED has provisionally attached movable and immovable properties belonging to various entities/individuals who received funds from Rose Valley Group and related entities having book value of Rs 70.11 crore under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA),” the agency said.
The attached assets include bank accounts of these three firms totaling Rs 16.20 crore.
This apart, 24 acres of land at Ramnagar and Mahishdal, Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, residential flat at Dilkap Chambers, Mumbai and one acre at Jyoti Basu Nagar, New Town, Kolkata and a hotel of Rose Valley Group have also been attached, the agency said.
The ED registered an FIR against the firm, its chairman Gautam Kundu and others in 2014 under the PMLA. Kundu was arrested by the agency in Kolkata in March, 2015 and is still under judicial custody.
Multiple charge sheets have been filed in the courts in Kolkata and Bhubaneswar by the ED in this case.
ED initiated investigation under PMLA on the basis of the FIRs/chargesheets received from West Bengal Police against Rose Valley Group of Companies and others.
The probe has revealed that Rose Valley Group of Companies were illegally and fraudulently collecting deposits from public with the intention to cheat them by falsely promising high returns on their investments.
Investigation under PMLA revealed that the Rose Valley Group collected over Rs 17,520 crores from public throughout India by luring depositors with false promise of high return/interest on their deposits out of which an amount of Rs 10,850 crore was refunded to the investors and remaining Rs 6,670 crore is still unpaid which constitutes the "proceeds of crime."
The Group had diverted and siphoned off the amount through cheating and had no real business that could repay this amount. Earlier ED had identified and attached properties under PMLA having tentative market value of around Rs 4,680 crore which includes several luxurious resorts, hotels, vehicles, flats, lands and gold, jewellery among others.
With the latest attachment, the total market value of properties attached so far in the Rose Valley Group cases has reached around Rs 4,750 Crores.