Wife of jailed Rose Valley boss arrested - CBI arrested Subhra Kundu, a former actress and wife of jailed Rose Valley owner Gautam Kundu

Subhra Kundu was nabbed five years after the ED booked Gautam Kundu in connection with its Rose Valley scam probe

Subhra Kundu, who acted in some movies produced by Rose Valley, is the director of two sister companies of the Rose Valley group.

Kinsuk Basu   |  TT   |    Calcutta   |   16.01.21 :  The CBI on Friday arrested Subhra Kundu, a former actress and wife of jailed Rose Valley owner Gautam Kundu, amid murmurs that the central agency was trying to fast-track probe into several Ponzi scams in Bengal ahead of the state polls.

The Rose Valley group has been under the scanner of central agencies for allegedly running multiple illegal deposit mobilisation schemes to cheat thousands of investors.

Subhra’s arrest comes five years after the ED arrested Gautam in connection with its probe into the Rs 17,000 crore Rose Valley scam.

She was arrested two days after former Trinamul Rajya Sabha member and businessman K.D. Singh in Delhi in connection with an alleged money laundering case involving his Alchemist Group.

A CBI team reached Subhra’s south Calcutta condominium on Friday afternoon armed with a tip-off that she was back in Calcutta from Mumbai barely 48 hours ago.

“She was requested to participate in a question-answer session and asked to share information on recent diversion of funds from different accounts of Rose Valley,” said a source.

Subhra, who acted in some movies produced by Rose Valley, is the director of two sister companies of the Rose Valley group.

Some CBI officers said they found evidence of recent transactions from accounts of these two companies, now shut.

“The amount involved several hundreds of crores, and none of the staff of the two companies could give a proper explanation,” said a source.

Subhra, CBI officers said, was arrested after a two-hour interrogation after she allegedly failed to provide any satisfactory answers.

She was later brought to the CBI office in CGO Complex in Salt Lake and would be produced before a court in Bhubaneswar on Saturday.

On her way to the CBI office, Subhra refused to reply to journalists on whether she had been framed.

Trinamul questioned the timing of her arrest.

“Why was she arrested now? Her husband was arrested several years back,” said Trinamul MP Saugata Roy. “The CBI is a caged parrot dancing to the tunes of the Centre.”