In the chit fund (Ponzi scheme) scam of about 60 thousand crore rupees related to Pearl Agro Corporation Ltd. (PACL), the team of Enforcement Directorate (ED) Dehradun branch raided the premises of a builder in Doon. The team seized a large number of land, documents of other properties and electronic devices. Different teams of ED are also engaged in investigating the houses and establishments of all the people involved in the scam in states like Punjab and Haryana. On Friday morning, the ED team reached the building/establishment of builder Mickey Afzal on Canal Road in Dehradun, as well as a wedding point/farm in the same area. The ED action is expected to continue till late night, due to which it could not be confirmed yet how much cash, jewellery and records have been seized by the ED in the raid.
ED can also start action to attach properties
ED can also start action to attach the builder’s properties under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) soon. Earlier, CBI has also tightened its grip on Pearl Group in Uttarakhand. Then, after a letter sent by CBI to the Revenue Council, the sale and purchase of properties related to Pearl Group in Uttarakhand was banned. However, even after this, land mafias did the work of encroaching the lands. The responsibility of preventing the lands from being encroached was on the District Magistrates, but the expected efforts could not be made in this direction. The same situation was seen in the case of Golden Forest’s properties. The scams of both the companies are of the same nature. 60 thousand crores were collected fraudulently from five crore investors. The scam of Rs 60 thousand crores of Pearl Agro Corporation Ltd. (PACL) is related to Nirmal Singh Bhanghu, a resident of Punjab. He has now died.
Bought more than 10 thousand hectares of land in different parts of the country
Through the Ponzi scheme, he, along with his associates, bought more than 10 thousand hectares of land in different parts of the country including Uttarakhand. For this, Nirmal Singh, along with his associates, lured the public to invest and promised high returns. In this way, he raised capital of Rs 60 thousand crore from more than five crore investors across the country. This amount was collected against the rules of SEBI, so the matter fell apart. After this, the Supreme Court constituted Justice RM Lodha Committee in the year 2015-16 to return the money of the investors by selling/auctioning the company’s properties. On the other hand, CBI and ED also started tightening the noose on the company, so that the movable and immovable properties of the company and its associates could be confiscated and relief could be provided to the investors through the Justice Lodha Committee. So far, more than Rs 878 crore has been raised through the committee. According to sources, refund of 1.5 crore investors has been received so far. However, a large number of investors are still waiting for the return of their money.
