Tripura cracks down on Rose Valley

Agartala, May 11 (PTI) :Two officials of a chit fund group were arrested, documents seized and the office closed down following a raid here early on Saturday, official sources said. A team of officials led by Sub-divisional Magistrate (SDM) Manik Lal Das and a contingent of state police and paramilitary Tripura State Rifles (TSR) raided Rose Valley's office at Mantribari Road here and seized the documents. Regional director of the company, Ashok Saha and another functionary were arrested and brought to West Agartala police station for interrogation, sources said. Several agents of the chit fund company demonstrated before the police station and threw stones demanding release of the officials, the police said. The police had to resort to canecharge to disperse them. SDM told reporters that the arrested functionaries of Rose Valley could not show any licence or any kind of sanction from RBI, SEBI or state or Centre for collection of deposits from customers. In a separate raid two functionaries of Pailan group who were collecting deposits from customers without valid permission from RBI and SEBI, were also arrested. The police said that a group of depositors ransacked the office of another chit fund company Ramel Group yesterday but their officials fled a few days ago with documents. The police said nine functionaries of several chit fund groups were arrested on charges of forgery, irregularities of cash transaction and lack of valid licenses.