CRIME FILE The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) claimed to have recovered documents from the premises of Delhi-based real estate company Pearls Agrotech Corporation Ltd (PACL) and its sister company Pearls Golden Forest Ltd (PGF) —which show the group allegedly used ponzi schemes to cheat nearly five crore investors of Rs 45,000 crore.
The CBI has named PGF director Nirmal Singh Bhangoo and PACL director Sukhdev Singh besides six other directors of the companies for allegedly duping investors by promising agriculture land and has booked them for criminal conspiracy and cheating under Sections 120B and 420 of IPC.
The groups had allegedly raised investments from over five crore gullible investors through collective investment scheme under the garb of sale and development of agricultural land, CBI spokesperson said. She said that after preliminary analysis of documents the agency came to know of the enormity of the scam. In Ponzi schemes, returns are given to investors from the money collected from other depositors in a pyramid-like structure.
"Initial investigation by CBI has revealed an alleged scam to the tune of Rs 45,000 crore in a case relating to an alleged fraud by Delhi-based private company and others through raising investments... through collective investment scheme under the garb of sale and development of agricultural land," the CBI spokesperson said.
The agency said the inquiry was carried out on the orders of the Supreme Court into allegations that the companies had collected crores of rupees through deposits from public at large through their ponzi scheme promising land.
The companies were found to have raised investments by issuing bogus land allotment letters to induce the investors.
CBI sources said that during the searches it has recovered documents which show benami properties worth crore in India and abroad. The investments made by the company in a hotel in Gold Coast, Australia, have also come under the scanner of CBI.
"It was revealed that PGF, on being directed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana to wind up the scheme and refund the money to the investors, a similar fraudulent scheme was operated under the name of PACL with office at Barakhamba Road," CBI alleged.
It is alleged that funds collected from new investors of PACL were used to repay the earlier investors of PGF to stave off criminal prosecution.
The agency has carried out searches at the offices of PGF and PACL at their offices in New Delhi, Chandigarh, Mohali, Ropar and Jaipur.
CBI sources said the accused persons have been called to appear for questioning even as a preliminary round of interrogation has been done by the sleuths.
"Funds have been raised by the two companies through a vast network of lakhs of commission agents spread all over the country who were being paid hefty commissions for luring the investors," the spokesperson said. The searches were conducted at the premises of Directors Harcharan Singh, Chandra Bhushan Dhillon, Prem Chand, Gurmeet Singh, Subrato Bhattacharya among others.
Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had raised concerns over legality of PACL’s operations since it was running a collective investment scheme in the garb of a real estate company.
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