The total refund to as many as 32,319 depositors in Rose Valley schemes has touched Rs 21.98 crore, the ED said on Friday. The ED has made this announcement just a day after the Calcutta High Court ordered the West Bengal government to submit a detailed report on the pending cases against Sudipta Sen, the founder-chairman of another ill-reputed chit fund entity, the Saradha Group. The main charges in such cases were about illegally collecting public deposits under different multi-level marketing schemes against promises of abnormal returns and vanishing at the time of paying those returns. In 2012, the entire West Bengal was rocked following the busting of chit-fund rackets operating from the state. The most talked about cases in the matter were those related to the SarAdha Group and Rose Valley Group, because of the involvement of several heavyweight political personalities mainly from the ruling Trinamool Congress. The agency also claimed that the agency officials have successfully attached movable properties worth Rs 494 crore and immovable properties valued at Rs 1,069 crore, spread across West Bengal, Odisha, Assam, and Tripura, with West Bengal alone accounting for £1,184 Crore in attached assets.
