BHUBANESWAR: International chess player from the State Padmini Rout appeared before Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday for questioning over her alleged links with chit fund company, Star Consultancy Services Private limited.Padmini told this newspaper that the sleuths questioned her about the sponsorship which the tainted firm had offered her. However, she claimed that she had not derived any financial gains from Star Consultancy.
The ED officials had issued summons to Padmini and asked her to depose before them on August 8 over her alleged links with Star Consultancy, but she could not do so as she was out of country attending a tournament.Sources said Star Consultancy, headed by its managing director Triveni Mohanty, had lured several chess players for investing in various schemes with false assurance of providing them higher returns, and Padmini’s father Ashok Rout was one of the directors of the tainted firm.
Mohanty had allegedly sponsored Rout after she won the World Youth Chess Championship in the girls’ Under-14 category in 2008, they added.The company allegedly swindled over `100 crore from the investors on the pretext of providing them higher returns. In April, the ED had attached the company’s immovable property worth `50 lakh and `33 lakh bank balance.