The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has seized seven luxury vehicles from a posh locality in Kolkata in its ongoing probe against Rose Valley Group of companies, a firm accused of cheating lakhs of people through its ponzi schemes.
The agency carried out a search operation on August 24, in which it seized seven high-end vehicles, including two BMWs, two Mercedes, one Honda Civic, one Toyota Fortuner and one Mahindra Scorpio under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The ED, in its statement, said that the seized vehicles were acquired out of the proceeds of crime collected by the companies of Rose Valley which cheated people through its scam mainly in West Bengal and Odisha.
The federal agency initiated money-laundering investigation on the basis of FIRs registered by West Bengal Police against Rose Valley Group of companies, its Chairman Gautam Kundu and others.
ED had filed a criminal case of money laundering against the firm, its Chairman Gautam Kundu and others in 2014 and later arrested him in Kolkata.
Multiple charge sheets have been filed by it in this case till now even as the probe continues.
In the FIRs, it was alleged that these Group companies had collected a huge amount of money from the common gullible public by floating various fake and fictitious schemes and defaulted the re-payments.
ED has already attached and seized properties worth Rs 1,074 crore in the case, the agency mentioned in a statement.
ED had also secured a successful conviction of Arun Mukherjee in February this year. He was holding the debentures of Rose Valley Group of companies. A Special PMLA court in Kolkata had convicted him and awarded imprisonment of seven years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2,50,000.
( With inputs from ANI )
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