In yet another embarrassment to the ruling Trinamool Congress, the CBI — which is investigating multi-crore chit fund cases in West Bengal — on Wednesday raided two flats of party MP Tapas Pal for his alleged connections with Rose Valley Group. The CBI is likely to summon the Tollywood actor and other functionaries of the Rose Valley Group for questioning after the seized documents are scrutinised, sources said.
Raids were part of searches conducted by the CBI in 27 locations across the State. Raids were also conducted at 16 locations — seven in Tripura and one each in Odisha, Assam, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Tamil Nadu. CBI sources added the searches had yielded important documents.
land deeds, and papers related to hotel business, apart from crucial leads on bank transactions, were recovered during the raid on Rose Valley’s Salt lake Sector V headquarters, sources said.
Searches were also conducted at Rose Valley CMD Gautam Kundu’s south Kolkata house and residences of other directors — Abir Kundu, Ramlal Goswami, AK Saha. Sources added that bank documents suggested transfer of money from the Group’s accounts to that of Pal.
Incidentally, the Rose Valley chief had on February 3 conceded that Pal had indeed worked with his company’s entertainment division. “He had worked for our entertainment division,” Kundu had said.
Roughly Rose Valley and Saradha Group had together raised more than Rs12,700 crore. As per reports while the Saradha Group — which had created a bigger uproar implicating several Trinamool Ministers and MPs — had raised about Rs2,500 crores, the Rose Valley Group had amassed Rs10,281 crore.
Pal had earlier written letters to the Central Government against mushrooming chit fund companies in Bengal had not mentioned the name of Rose Valley Group.
His omission of Rose Valley’s name in the complaint letters could be the result of his association with the group, sources said, adding the letter itself could be the product of a fierce competition for market among the chit fund companies.
“The banks transactions seem to make a prima facie case based on which Pal could be issued summons for interrogation,” an official said. The Trinamool leader told the media that there was nothing to worry as the CBI had gone to his flat to ask some questions from his wife, Nandini Pal, who had hosted an entertainment show in one of Rose Valley’s television channels.
While the Trinamool leadership remained tightlipped regarding the Wednesday’s developments, the Opposition — the left, the BJP and the Congress — joined chorus of criticism.
BJP state president Rahul Sinha said, “There is no difference between jailed Trinamool MP Kunal Ghosh, who headed the media division of Saradha Group, and Tapas Pal, who was heading a similar division in Rose Valley.” More Trinamool leaders’ names will be exposed in days to come, he added.
CPI(M)’s Sujan Chakrabarty said the chit fund skeletons tumbling off the cupboards would finally see the whole Trinamool leadership in jail. Congress’ Abdul Mannan said, “It is only the beginning as more names are likely to follow.”
The Enforcement Directorate that is probing the money laundering aspect of the chit fund scam has attached 2,631 bank accounts of the Rose Valley Group with deposits to the tune of Rs295 crore under the stringent provisions of the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMlA).
According to the CBI FIR, the Rose Valley Group had floated various schemes by promising inflated returns on investments between 8 and 27 per cent to gullible investors in various States. The Group companies had allegedly promised astronomical returns to the investors from investments in the real estate. The Group is also alleged to have made “cross investments” in its various sister companies to undervalue its liabilities to the investors.