Saradha Scam: Tapas Paul’s house among 43 locations searched by CBI

In connection with the Rose Valley case, the CBI  conducted raids at 43 locations including 27 locations in West Bengal, seven in Tripura and one each in Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattishgarh, Tamil Nadu, Maharastra and Assam.

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Kanchan Prasad, CIO, CBI said: “Apart from offices, searches are being conducted at the residential premises of Rose Valley group chairman Gautam Kundu, Sibamoy Dutta and the directors including Abir Kundu, Ramlal Goswami, Ashok Kumar Saha and Paul.”

There was an apparent period of ‘lull’ since the former general secretary of All India Trinamool Congress and a TMC Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Roy was interrogated by the CBI in February in connection with Saradha scam.

Paul is now being investigated in connection with Rose Valley group that has a ‘six-time bigger stake’ in the deposit collection market than Saradha. It allegedly collected a deposit of over Rs 15,000 crore from depositors and investors, many of whom are now uncertain about getting their money back.

The CBI on Wednesday conducted raids at two of the residences of Paul in south Kolkata and seized documents. Paul was not at his residence. He is said to be returning from Delhi late tonight and would be summoned by the CBI soon.

The Enforcement Directorate had been investigating into the Rose valley case for last eight months. The ED officers had grilled Kundu more than six times and it is likely they will examine Paul too. The investigators claim that Paul is the director of two Rose Valley group companies — Idea Projects Limited and Rose Valley Chain Marketing.

According to sources, the CBI raids came after the ED passed on vital information regarding the Rose Valley group to the CBI, even as Kundu filed 11 cases in different courts against the ED investigation.

The directorate had already issued orders to attach 2,631 bank accounts of the Rose Valley Group under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The ruling TMC is under pressure with one of its minister and two legislators already arrested in the Saradha case.

They include transport and sports minister Madan Mitra, senior leader and former IPS officer Rajat Majumdar, former Rajya Sabha MP Srinjoy Bose, and Kunal Ghosh, who was suspended from TMC.