As per the Enforcement Directorate, Gautam Kundu who is the CMD of Rose Valley Group, has 700 acres of land in the 12 states of the country, 150 cars which include dozens of imported luxury vehicles, 23 hotels, 900 branch offices and 3078 accounts in bank.
As per the records of ED, Gautam owns land in West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Tripura, Punjab, Delhi, MP, Assam , Jharkhand and Rajasthan. They have started making list of the properties of Gautam but they feel that the volume of his properties may go above 1000 acres.
ED got some complaints against the group, on the basis of which ED has scrutinized the software and bank data of the company which revealed that the Rose valley group of companies collected 15, 400 crores from the public in last few years but they have returned only 900 crores to the investors on maturity. Special Director, ED (East), Yogesh Gupta has asserted to ET that the agency has filed a charge sheet and it is also working on another one.
A look at the list of Gautam’s properties reveals that he has 15 acres in Assam, 10 acres in Madhya Pradesh, 100 acres in West Bengal and around 110 acres in Tripura. In the state of Bengal, Gautam has made investments in East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Burdwan, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri , Howrah, Bankura, North and South 24 Paraganas districts. He has 12 plots in East Midnapore only. The group is said to have made investments in Kolkata, Port Blair, North Lakhimpur, Siliguri, Durgapur, Ranchi, Mondarmani, Lataguri, Falakata, Midnapore, Tarapith, Old Digha, Silchar, Haridwar, Goa, Gaya, Jaipur and New Delhi also.
Out of 23 hotels, Gautam owns luxury properties in Jaipur, Jalpaiguri, Kolkata, Siliguri and East Midnapore. The Rose Valley group has a network of 900 branches which spreads over West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Punjab. The list also includes seven residences of premium category at the northern border of Kolkata with a 6, 000 sq. ft Villa in Ranchi and a gold and diamond jewellery mall.
The revelation of Rose Valley scam has sent shivers into Trinamool Congress and the parties which rule Odisha and Assam, BJD and Congress respectively. Gautam was arrested by ED on March 25 and the group is said to have connections with many TMC leaders, many Bollywood and Tollywood actors also have been associated with the group. In March, 2012, Gautam had meetings with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in north Bengal and it is also said that he has purchased some of her paintings. However, Gautam has called it just “a courtesy call”.
The investigating agency says that only 6 out of 27 companies were active while the remaining were just on paper. TOI reported that on December 1, Gautam has hit his head against the iron bars of the lockup in Jalpaiguri as he was fed up of alleged bad treatment given to him as he was locked up with petty thieved and criminals.
He has also started a hunger strike in demand for accessing his accounts in bank which have been frozen, so that he could repay his investors. “The jail authorities are keeping me with thieves, dacoits and other criminals. Am I a criminal?” Gautam shouted behind the bars in the court room prison before hitting his forehead on the iron bars which led to a cut in his forehead. He claimed that he will be returning the money of investors even if he needs to sell his blood for that.
He was bought to Jalpaiguri as a case has been booked against him under section 419 and 420 of IPC, it was filed on the basis of an FIR made by Sunil Kumar Mazumdar who alleged that Rose Valley has not paid back his Rs. 2.6 lakh even after the maturity of deposit.