Chit fund case: Wife of Rose Valley chief held

The CBI’s Economic Offences Wing arrested Subhra Kundu, wife of Rose Valley Group chairman Gautam Kundu, in Kolkata on Friday in connection with its probe into the multi-crore chit fund scam. The Enforcement Directorate, which had arrested Gautam in 2015, is also investigating the Rs 17,000-crore scam, said to be the biggest in Bengal.

According to sources, the CBI will take Subhra to a Bhubaneswar court on Saturday for transit remand. The case was registered in Odisha. The CBI arrested Subhra, who was wanted by the CBI and ED and did not reply to notices, after getting information that she was in her South Kolkata house.

The Rose Valley Group allegedly cheated thousands of depositors, promising abnormally high returns on investments in its illegal schemes. As per sources, Subhra is the director of two companies of Rose Valley Group. CBI officers said she could not give any satisfactory answer to bank transactions by these two companies. She is alleged to have siphoned crores, which were said to be proceeds of crime, and managed the Rose Valley Group companies after Gautam’s arrest.

Several TMC leaders have been interrogated, arrested and jailed in connection with the case.

TMC leader Saugata Roy said about Subhra’s arrest, “I don’t want to give it much importance. Why did it take them so long to arrest her when Gautam Kundu was arrested long back?”