Bhubaneswar, Jan. 7: The CBI today filed a preliminary charge sheet against Rose Valley Group, a deposit collection company which has duped lakhs of investors of crores in the state.
However, the charge sheet filed before the court of Special Chief Judicial Magistrate, CBI, did not mention the group's link with any politician in Odisha.
In March, the CBI had raided the company's office in Bhubaneswar. During the raid, the agency had found some photographs featuring local political leaders alongside officials of the company. One of these photos also featured chief minister Naveen Patnaik. The group had also allegedly donated Rs 2 lakh to the chief minister's relief fund in Odisha.
The preliminary charge sheet has indicted Rose Valley chairman Gautam Kundu and its three directors Ashok Kumar Saha, Shibamoy Dutta and Ramlal Goswami. While Saha and Dutta are now lodged in Jharpada jail following their arrest from Calcutta in September, Kundu is at present imprisoned in Calcutta in a separate case lodged by Enforcement Directorate.
Goswami, however, is yet to be arrested.
The preliminary charge sheet mentioned that the company had duped people of Rs 450 crore in the state and Rs 17,000 crore across the country. The 86-page charge sheet also mentioned 131 witnesses.
The company has allegedly duped more than 1.25 lakh people in the state with a promise of high interest on their investments. State police had registered 25 cheating cases against the company at various places across the state and arrested seven functionaries of the company. The Calcutta-based firm had collected investments through its 65 branches across the state.
State crime branch, which was probing the financial irregularities of the group in the state, had proposed attachment of the company's assets, including deposits worth Rs 51 crore in various banks, Rs 47 lakh in cash, two patches of 15-acre land in Bhubaneswar and Balasore.
"This is a preliminary charge sheet and the investigation is still on," said a senior CBI official.
In another related development, the court today granted the CBI a seven-day remand for Ranjan Das, the chief of deposit collection company Swastik India. Das was arrested yesterday along with two managing directors of the company - Sabyasachi Pani and Pramod Parida - for allegedly duping investors of Rs 50 crore. The CBI has also prayed to the court to take Jagabandhu Panda, former director of Artha Tatwa Group, in custody to ascertain his links with Swastik India. Panda is now in judicial custody.
The CBI today also interrogated two office-bearers of Odisha Cricket Association to find out link of Das with the first edition of Odisha Premier League. It was alleged that the team, Balasore Bagha, was bought by S.V. Infra, a firm also owned by Das.
The CBI today also interrogated Ajit Mangaraj, who had contested for Pipili Assembly seat on a BJP ticket in 2009, for his alleged links with Artha Tatwa Group.
Cops to grill UP don
One of the most wanted mafia dons of Uttar Pradesh Brijesh Singh, who was arrested from Bhubaneswar in January 2008, was today taken in a two-day remand by Lakshmisagar police here. The remand was granted by a local court in connection with a case lodged by the police station in 2008.
Brijesh, who carried a reward of Rs 5 lakh on his head, had been living in Bhubaneswar since 2003 in the assumed name of Arun Singh. Police had found a revolver from his house in Lakshmisagar police station limits after he was arrested from a shopping mall at Kharavela Nagar.
The Lakshmisagar police had registered a case against him under sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act.
Singh, who was lodged in a jail in Uttar Pradesh, reached the city today amidst tight security.
The police are also planning to seek extension of Singh's remand as a cheating case was also lodged against him at Airfield police station.
