BH Correspondent
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday provisionally attached movable and immovable assets of different individuals and entities in connection with the multi-crore Rose Valley chit fund scam. One of the entities facing the ED heat is the Knight Riders Sports Pvt Ltd that 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 Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Kundu was arrested by the agency in Kolkata in 2015 and is still in prison.
The value of these properties is Rs 70.11 crore, said ED officials. Apart from the SRK-linked firm, the others include Multiple Resorts Pvt Ltd and St Xavier’s College, Kolkata.
“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 Rs 17,520 crore from public throughout India by luring depositors with false promise of high return/interest on their deposits out of which an amount of Rs 10,850 crore was refunded and remaining Rs 6,670 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 the Rose Valley cases has reached around Rs 4,750 crore, the ED said.
It may be recalled that SRK was 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.
With agency inputs
