Kolkata, June 6 : The Enforcement Directorate, on Thursday, issued a fresh summons to the popular actress Rituparna Sengupta for questioning in the ration distribution scam case in West Bengal.

In the fresh notice, Sengupta has been asked to be present at ED's office at CGO Complex at Salt Lake on the northern outskirts of Kolkata next week. She was supposed to be present at the ED questioning on Wednesday.

However, she skipped the summons and instead sent a communique to the Central agency expressing her inability to appear personally because of her preoccupations outside the country. However, in the communique, she expressed her desire to fully cooperate with ED in the latter's course of investigation. She also communicated to ED to appear personally for interrogation at any later date.

Sources said that after getting the communique from the actress, the ED officials decided to serve a fresh notice to her and give her reasonable time to appear for interrogation at the Central agency office.

Sources said that the name of Sengupta surfaced while the ED officials were examining the documents related to an accused in the ration distribution case. She will be asked to clarify her links with certain transactions that surfaced during the examination of the documents related to the accused.

To recall, in 2019, Sengupta was summoned by the ED officials in connection with the multi-crore Rose Valley chit fund scam in West Bengal.

She was summoned for her involvement in some of the entertainment projects, including films, promoted by the Rose Valley Group. It was alleged that the films were produced using the money laundered by the Rose Valley Group through its various marketing schemes promising the investors lucrative returns.

/IANS