BackRose valley scam: CBI arrests Trinamool MP Tapas Pal
CBI officials said the decision to arrest Tapas Pal was taken on Friday after he turned up for questioning and couldn't give satisfactory answers in connection with Rose Valley group
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Kolkata: Actor-turned-politician Tapas Pal was on Friday arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and taken to Bhubaneswar for allegedly helping the now defunct Rose Valley group dupe depositors, according to a spokesperson for the agency.
A Trinamool Congress leader, Pal is a Lok Sabha member of Parliament (MP) from West Bengal’s Nadia district. Pal is alleged to have been a director of the Rose valley group’s media business. He had previously said that he had quit within months of joining it, and that he had taken the initiative to blow the whistle on several deposit-taking companies in the state back in 2010.
The Rose Valley group received over Rs10,000 crore in public deposits from several eastern Indian states, including West Bengal and Odisha, according to official estimates of the union government. It could not repay a substantial part of it—it isn’t immediately known how much.
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Whereas the CBI took the lead in investigating complaints against the relatively smaller Saradha group, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) claims to have made substantial progress with its probe into the Rose Valley group’s affairs. The ED has attached assets worth over Rs1,250 crore from the group.
The ED, which investigates money laundering and foreign exchange violations, had arrested the Rose Valley group’s chairman Gautam Kundu in March 2015. He continues to be in the ED’s custody.
From around the time Kundu was arrested, Pal was under the CBI’s scanner. The agency raided his home in March 2015.
CBI officials in Kolkata said the decision to arrest him was taken on Friday after he turned up for questioning and couldn’t give satisfactory answers about his role in the Rose Valley group’s operations. These officials asked not to be named.
Addressing a press conference, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said Pal’s arrest was meant to intimidate the Trinamool Congress, which is vehemently opposing demonetization. The party’s agitation will continue, she said.
She alleged several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders had enjoyed hospitality of the Rose Valley group, which also ran a chain of hotels. These leaders are also guilty if Pal is held to have taken advantage of the Rose Valley group, she claimed.
Last week, the CBI asked another Trinamool Congress MP, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, to appear for questioning.
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