The genesis of this scam can be traced back to Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, a resident of Barnala, Punjab, who initially was involved in the dairy business. He later initiated land investment schemes, having worked with companies like Golden Forest India Limited.
Another arrest has been made in the country's largest investment fraud. Gurnam Singh, a director involved in the PACL (Pearls Agro-Tech Corporation Limited) scam, has been apprehended by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Uttar Pradesh from Rupnagar, Punjab. He is accused of defrauding over 5 crore people across the country, amounting to approximately ₹49,000 crore.
CBI and ED are already investigating
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are already investigating this case. The investigating agencies had obtained several crucial pieces of evidence after continuous complaints from investors and an in-depth investigation by SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India). An FIR number 1/18 was registered in 2018 at the EOW police station in Kanpur in this case. A total of 10 people are named in this case, four of whom are already in jail.
Role of Gurnam Singh
The arrested accused, Gurnam Singh, was a director of PACL. EOW officials stated that he was appointed to this position by Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, the founder of PACL. It is alleged that Gurnam Singh collected large sums of money from people in UP and other states in the name of investment without any valid permission. Cases have been registered against him in several states.
How the scam started
PACL started in Jaipur in 1996 as a small company called Guruvant Agro-Tech. In 2011, its name was changed to PACL. The company started collecting money from investors without any NBFC registration. Under Section 45 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, an NBFC license is required for any such activity.
The company opened its branches in districts like Mahoba, Sultanpur, Jalaun, and Farrukhabad in UP and lured people there with the promise of land on installments and fixed returns. In return, people were only given bond receipts, while they neither received land nor any returns. In Uttar Pradesh alone, more than ₹19,000 crore was swindled.
New revelations in ED's charge sheet
The Enforcement Directorate recently filed a supplementary charge sheet in the special PMLA court in Delhi. The investigation revealed that PACL's funds were diverted through several shell companies and fake entities. These included companies like MDB Housing Complex, which were controlled by Harsatinder Pal Singh, the son-in-law of PACL founder Nirmal Singh Bhangoo.
According to the ED, Hayer bought expensive properties in Mumbai, Punjab, and Haryana with the money from this scam and tried to legitimize them. Hayer was arrested on March 21 and is currently in judicial custody.
Where the scam originated
Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, a resident of Barnala district, Punjab, laid the foundation for this scam. Initially involved in the dairy business, he later initiated PACL after learning from companies like Golden Forest India Limited. He claimed that he would buy land from farmers for commercial use and provide investors with high profits.
But in reality, investors were only given bond receipts, and there were no land transactions.
