HYDERABAD: Officials with the Delhi zonal office of the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) have conducted searches at 44 locations across Telangana, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand in connection with the case of Pearl Agro Corporation Limited (PACL) and its group. These searches, carried out on October 4 under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), resulted in the recovery and seizure of various incriminating documents.
The investigation was initiated by the agency after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered an FIR under various sections of the Indian Penal Code. The FIR alleges that PACL India Limited illegally collected money from the public through collective investment schemes for allotting plots in various parts of the country or giving investors the option to take back the expected tentative value of the land in lieu of the allotted plot upon maturity. It is important to note that PACL was banned by SEBI for illegally collecting at least Rs 49,100 crore from 58 million investors over 18 years.
The probe revealed that PACL directors misappropriated funds received from investors and transferred them to shell companies located in Kolkata under the guise of land development expenses. Subsequently, these funds were withdrawn in cash and distributed to key associates of PACL in New Delhi. Afterward, these funds were transferred from Delhi through hawala transactions to companies incorporated in Dubai in the names of PACL’s key associates. The purpose of these transfers was to facilitate the purchase of immovable properties abroad.
In 2018, the ED had already attached immovable properties belonging to PACL and its related companies worth Rs 462 crore in Australia and movable and immovable properties worth Rs 244 crore in India in 2022. The details of these attached assets were shared with the Justice Lodha Committee, appointed by the Supreme Court to oversee the process of disposing of the properties and refunding investors. Furthermore, the ED has filed Prosecution Complaints against eleven entities, including PACL and its related companies, and individuals like Nirmal Singh Bhagoo and his close associates KS Toor, ML Sehjpal, Prateek and CP Khandelwal, among others.