PMLA court convicts Arun Mukherjee in Rose Valley money laundering case

A Special PMLA court in Kolkata on Saturday convicted a Rose Valley official Arun Mukherjee in the Rose Valley money laundering case and sentenced him to seven years in jail.

The Court had sentenced Mukherjee to suffer rigorous imprisonment of 7 years and to pay a fine of Rs 2,50,000 and in default of payment of the fine another rigorous imprisonment for 6 months, said Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a statement.

ED had initiated an investigation under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 against Rose Valley Real Estates Construction Ltd. its Chairman Gautam Kundu along with other persons related to the company.

ED said, "It was alleged in the Securities Exchange Board of India that Rose Valley Real Estate Construction Limited and its Associate Compes repeatedly floated Secured Non-Convertible Debentures in the year 2001-2002, 2004-2005, 2005-2006 and in 2007-2008 and issued to more than 49 persons in each financial year and illegally raised the total sum of Rs 12.82 Crores."

"During the course of the investigation conducted under PMLA it was revealed that the accused Company under the direction and control of accused persons had accumulated investments from 2585 persons, a total of around Rs 12 crores and acquired control over various securities as defined under section 11(C) of SEBI Act, 1992 read with section 24 and 27 of the said Act. The money so acquired were further laundered by investing the same in various movable properties," said the statement.

The statement from the probe agency read, "A provisional attachment order under PMLA was issued in respect of fourteen fixed deposits having a total value of Rs 12 crores. In this case two accused persons namely Gautam Kundu and Shri Amit Banerjee were arrested in 2015. Prosecution Complaints were filed in 2015."

"Arun Mukherjee who was Debenture Trustee and was responsible for the acts and affairs of the Company at the relevant time had pleaded guilty for the offence of money laundering before the Special Court under PMLA in Kolkata," further said the ED.

ED also said that further trial with respect of other accused persons is in progress.

( With inputs from ANI )