BHUBANESWAR: On the run for the last eight years, Bikramjit Bhowmik (51), who was the regional manager of dubious Rose Valley chit fund company in Odisha, has been arrested by the economic offences wing (EOW) of the state Crime Branch from East Midnapore district on Monday.
The Rose Valley Group is accused of having cheated investors of about Rs 17,000 crore in the country, at least four times more than the Saradha Group scam. In Odisha, the company allegedly duped depositors of nearly Rs 450 crore.
The Rose Valley scam, involving several cases registered in different police stations in the state, is being separately probed by the CBI and state EOW. Bhowmik was wanted by the EOW in a cheating case registered against the company at Soro police station in Balasore district in 2013.
“The Soro police had registered the case on May 10, 2013. We (EOW) took over the investigation from the Soro police on May 28, 2013. The company’s Soro branch had cheated investors of nearly Rs 2.82 crore. Since Bhowmik was the Odisha region head, we were looking for him. He had absconded to evade arrest since the registration of the case,” an EOW officer said.
The EOW said they got clues about Bhowmik recently and sought the assistance of the West Bengal police to arrest him. After his arrest on Monday, he was produced in the court of the chief judicial magistrate at Tamluk. The EOW brought him on transit remand to Odisha and produced him in a court at Balasore on Tuesday.
The state government already attached Rose Valley’s bank balance to the tune of over Rs 83 crore and immovable assets worth nearly Rs 11 crore. The CBI had on January 7, 2016 filed a charge sheet in a court here against Rose Valley’s chairman Gautam Kundu, managing director Shibamoy Dutta and two directors Ashok Kumar Saha and Ram Lal Goswami.
The company allegedly reposed faith in the investors by showing two photographs in which the firm donated Rs 2 lakh and Rs 25 lakh to the CM relief funds of Odisha and Assam, respectively. In Odisha, the Rose Valley floated attractive tour packages and returned hefty amount to the customers if they cancelled the packages. At least 25 cheating cases were registered against the company at different places in Odisha.
