Rose Valley investors will have to be repaid their full deposited amount within six months, the Calcutta High Court has directed, saying that releasing only Rs 500 crore would not be sufficient to settle the claims.
A division bench led by Justice Rajarshi Bharadwaj issued the direction on Thursday after the Asset Disposal Committee provided the court with an update on the repayment process. The court ordered that the money be recovered through the sale of seized Rose Valley properties and that the disposal process be completed within six months.
The immediate repayment plan includes the release of Rs 500 crore to investors before Durga Puja. However, the court made clear that this amount would not represent the entire liability to investors. The remaining dues will also have to be addressed through the sale of seized assets, according to the report on the proceedings.
The direction places the Asset Disposal Committee and the authorities handling the seized properties under a time-bound repayment schedule. The High Court has asked them to accelerate the sale process so that the proceeds can be distributed to investors within the period fixed by the bench.
The case concerns investors who have been waiting to recover money deposited with the Rose Valley group. The report says that several thousand crore rupees were lost by investors. It does not provide the total number of claimants, the complete value of the assets available for sale or the amount that remains outstanding after the proposed Rs 500 crore payment.
The proceedings also bring into focus the administrative challenge of converting seized property into cash for repayment. Asset sales must be completed before the proceeds can reach claimants, making valuation, disposal and distribution central to the court-monitored process. The court’s direction links these stages to a six-month deadline rather than leaving repayment to an open-ended schedule.
The Enforcement Directorate arrested Rose Valley chairman Gautam Kundu in 2015, according to the report. The latest order follows the committee’s submission to the High Court on the repayment mechanism and does not, in the supplied report, provide details of individual investor claims or a property-wise disposal timetable.
The next stated milestones are the proposed Rs 500 crore repayment before Durga Puja and completion of the sale of seized properties and full repayment process within six months, as directed by the High Court.
