Kolkata, Sep 16 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) was conducting simultaneous raids and search operations at six locations in Kolkata on Wednesday in connection with a multi-crore chit fund case. Sources aware of the development said a team of ED officials, accompanied by the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), reached the house of a businessman in the Narkeldanga area in North Kolkata at around 7 a.m.It is learnt that the said businessman collected public deposits promising lucrative returns and invested them in various sectors.Later, five other teams of ED, the investigation arm of the Union Finance Minister, conducted raids at five other locations in North and South Kolkata in connection with the same chit fund case.Sources said the public deposits were collected in the name of a Ponzi entity, APM Group, which collected money and invested in various sectors, but through another corporate entity that mainly acted as a shell company.It is learnt that raids and search operations were conducted on charges of embezzlement of money deposited in that chit fund scheme. According to sources, in addition to the residence of the Ponzi entity's owner, similar raids are also being conducted at the houses of the owners’ linkmen.

Sources said that the modus operandi of the forgery by the said entity was the same -- where first huge public deposits were collected through different multi-level marketing schemes promising investors of lucrative returns, and then the collected money was invested in different sectors through a shell entity.These public deposits, sources said, were collected without proper authorisation from the concerned regulatory authorities.At the time the report was filed, the raid and search operations at the six locations were continuing, and ED officials were also questioning different persons linked to the Ponzi entity.Since 2012, West Bengal has been a hotbed of Ponzi entities, including Sudipto Sen-owned Saradha Group and Gautam Kundu-owned Rose Valley Group, among others.The ED and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have been conducting separate probes into the activities of many such entities for a long time, and have also arrested several top leaders of Trinamool Congress for links to them.

/IANS