The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday provisionally attached movable and immovable properties belonging to different entities and individuals in connection with the rose valley scam. The properties have been seized under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The value of these properties is Rs 70.11 crore, said ED officials, and includes a company linked to an IPL cricket team promoted by actor Shah Rukh Khan.
The three firms are Multiple Resorts Pvt Ltd, St Xavier’s College, Kolkata, and Knight Riders Sports Pvt Ltd, said the agency.
“The bank accounts of the three firms that have been attached total Rs 16.20 crore. Besides, 24 acres of land at Ramnagar and Mahishdal in West Bengal’s Purba Medinipur district, a flat at Dilkap Chambers, Mumbai, an acre of land at Jyoti Basu Nagar in Kolkata’s New Town and a hotel of the Rose Valley group have also been attached as part of the latest order,” the ED said in a statement.
“Investigation under PMLA has revealed that Rose Valley Group of Companies collected more than ₹ 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 ₹ 10,850 crores was refunded and remaining ₹ 6670 crore is still unpaid which constitutes the proceeds of crime,” the agency statement added.
With this attachment the total market value of properties so far attached in Rose Valley Group of Company cases has reached around Rs 4750 crore, the ED said.
The Knight Riders Sports Pvt Ltd owns the ‘Kolkata Knight Riders’ Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket team and its directors include actor Shah Rukh Khan’s wife Gauri Khan as well as Jay Mehta, actor Juhi Chawla’s husband. The ED had registered an FIR against Knight Riders Sports Pvt Ltd, its chairman Gautam Kundu and others in 2014 under the PMLA. Kundu was arrested by the agency in Kolkata in 2015.
Khan was even questioned by the ED in 2015 in connection with the alleged Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) violations in the IPL. The case involved alleged violation is selling around five million Knight Riders Sports Pvt Ltd (KRSPL) shares at an undervalued rate to Jay Mehta. The actor was questioned by the agency many times.
Multiple chargesheets have been filed in the courts in Kolkata and Bhubaneswar by the ED in this case.