NEW DELHI: Raising hopes for lakhs who lost their money in the Rose Valley ponzi scam in West Bengal, govt on Saturday gave Rs 515 crore to the asset disposal committee for restitution of properties to 7.5 lakh victims.
So far, around 31 lakh claims have been registered by the Calcutta high court-appointed committee, and Rs 22 crore has been restored to 32,319 investors.
Junior Union finance minister Pankaj Chaudhary handed over the cheque for the amount, attached by Enforcement Directorate, to committee chairman Justice (Retd) DK Seth. In addition, attached movable and immovable assets worth Rs 2,000 crore are currently under liquidation, which will be used to refund poor people who had lost their investments in the chit fund scam.
Lakhs of people in West Bengal, Odisha, Assam and Tripura had invested their life savings in the scheme that turned out to be a ponzi scam orchestrated by some influential people, allegedly in nexus with top politicians associated with Trinamool Congress, according to ED. The investors were promised land allotment, or time sharing in hotels. And, in event of inability to deliver the land/time sharing, refund with high rate of interest on maturity of investments.
In the Rose Valley scam, the accused had collected more than Rs 17,500 crore, mostly from poor people. ED said more than Rs 6,700 crore of this fund remained unpaid and outstanding towards investors which was siphoned off by perpetrators of the scam, and invested in personal properties.
ED director Rahul Navin and other senior officials of the agency were also present on the occasion when this money was handed over to ADC. “This is one of the single largest investigations of this type undertaken by ED, and an order passed by special court (PMLA) at Khurda, Bhubaneswar, on March 29 has paved the way for the return of investors’ money all over the country through ADC,” ED said in a statement.
The agency further said that the restitution process is expected to continue in full swing over the coming months as more claims are being scrutinised and validated by ADC. “The instant restitution is in line with the commitment of PM Modi, to return the money looted from poor people,” ED said.
About The Author
