ED pegs value of seized properties of Rose Valley at over Rs 4,500 crore

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) Tuesday submitted a report before the Calcutta High Court pegging the market value of seized immovable properties of chit fund company Rose Valley at Rs 4,685.40 crore.

The base value of these properties, which include hotels, land and buildings, stood at Rs 896.13 crore when these were attached since 2017, the ED report said.

The chit fund is estimated to have raised Rs 15,000 crore from investors.

The ED, in its report submitted before a special bench comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Joy Sengupta, estimated the current value of the seized immovable assets at Rs 4,685.40 crore.

The special bench was constituted by the then chief justice of Calcutta High Court, Justice Manjula Chellur in July, 2016 for speedy disposal of the chit fund cases.

At least 150 matters relating to chit fund companies, including Saradha Group and Rose Valley Group, are pending before the high court.

The ED has also seized movable properties like bank accounts and vehicles totalling Rs 414.94 crore, the report, submitted by Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Kaushik Chanda, said.

The assets were seized as per nine provisional attachment orders, of which five were related to ED's Kolkata office and two each of its Bhubaneswar and Guwahati office.

The seizures pertained to different companies of the Rose Valley Group.

Apart from these, cash amounting to Rs 12.7 lakh and gold, jewellery, diamond and precious stones worth Rs 41 crore were seized from M/S Adrija Gold Corporation, an unit of Rose Valley Group.

The list has been submitted before the Asset Disposal Committee appointed by the high court in the Rose Valley matter, the nine-page report said.

The properties have been attached under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

The division bench directed the additional solicitor general to circulate the report among lawyers of all parties in the Rose Valley matter.

The court directed that the matter would come up for hearing again after two weeks.

Rose Valley chairman Guatam Kundu was arrested by the ED on March 25, 2015. The directorate started the probe on the basis of a SEBI complaint.