A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Kolkata has convicted the Arun Mukherjee, the director of chit fund company Rose Valley, in a money laundering case, Enforcement Directorate said on February 13.
The court has sentenced Mukherjee to seven years in jail for duping investors of their money through ponzi schemes floated by the firm. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 2.5 lakh on the convict..
The court convicted Mukherjee after he admitted that he was guilty during the hearing.
According to the court, Mukherjee, who was arrested after the scam was unearthed in 2013, was in custody for three years before being released on bail, and this period of incarceration will be included in the total jail term of seven years he has to serve.
The ED had registered a money laundering case in 2014 on the basis of an FIR filed by the West Bengal Police and the CBI against the Rose Valley Group of Companies. The Rose Valley ponzi scheme was unearthed in 2013.
The group allegedly floated 27 companies to run various schemes and collected Rs 17,520 crore from depositors in West Bengal, Assam and Bihar. With the recent attachment, the value of properties seized in the Rose Valley Group cases has reached around Rs 4,750 crore.
During the probe, several prominent Trinamool Congress leaders, including Sudip Bandopadhyay (MP) and Tapas Pal (MLA), have been interrogated, arrested and jailed. Bandopadhyay is out on bail, while Pal died last year.
The ED has also questioned many Bangla movie personalities, like Rituparna Sengupta and Prosenjit Chatterjee, for acting in films funded by Gautam Kundu, Rose Valley Group promoter and director. Kundu was arrested in March 2015 and is in judicial custody.
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