The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a preliminary chargesheet in the Rose Valley chit fund scam at the Special Chief Judicial Magistrate’s (CJM) Court here on Thursday.
The 86-page dicuent charged the chit fund firm of defrauding depositors of Rs17,000 crore, out of which Rs450 crore is from Odisha. The CBI has included 131 witnesses and 252 documents in the chargesheet. The accused have been charged under Sections 120 (B), 420, 409 of the IPC and Sections 4 and 6 of the Prize and Chits Banning Act.
The Central investigation agency has named three firms of the Rose Valley, Rose Valley Real Estate and Construction ltd, Rose Valley Hotel and Entertainment ltd and Rose Valley Real Estate and land Bank India ltd, in the chargesheet.
The CBI named company’s chairman Goutam Kundu, managing director Sibamaya Dutta and directors Ramlal Goswami and Ashok Kumar Saha. While Ashok Saha and Sibamaya Dutta have been arrested by the CBI, it is planning to get on remand Kundu, who is currently in the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The CBI is on the lookout for Ramlal and is preparing the list of other directors of the company.
The company had opened 21 regional and 880 branch offices and enrolled over 20 lakh agents of which around 2.7lakh were actively involved in collection of deposits in the State. In another development, the CBI quizzed two officials of Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) officials in connection with the investment of Artha Tatwa money in cricket.
OCA accountant and cashier were summoned to the CBI office here and grilled about the links between the AT Group and the OCA and about how much money the ponzi firm had invested during the Odisha Premier league (OPl) which was organised by the OCA in 2011.