The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested an absconding accused Harchand Singh, ex-director of M/s PGF Ltd., on his arrival in New Delhi in a case related to multi-thousand crore Chit Fund Scam.
The accused was brought back to India upon being deported from Fiji.
The accused was absconding in this case since its inception. The Trial Court had issued an open dated Non-Bailable Warrant of Arrest against him, and a Red Notice was also got published through INTERPOL. This arrest is the result of initiatives taken by CBI during ‘Operation Trishul” last year, when request for issuance of Interpol Red Notice against him was sent. A request for his deportation was pursued through NCB, Suva (Fiji). A CBI team brought him back to India upon being deported from Fiji.
The said accused Harchand Singh, then Director & shareholder of a private company, was alleged to be actively associated with the affairs of the said Company and was also present in the Board Meetings where all the important decisions were taken. It was further alleged that he conspired with other Directors of the said private company to operate the collective investment scheme illegally without any statutory approval.
The arrested accused is being produced today before the Designated Court at Rouse Avenue District Courts, New Delhi.
The CBI had registered the case on 19.02.2014 against then Chairman/CMD & Promoter Director of a private company and others including the said private company, other private company & then Directors of these private companies after conversion of a Preliminary Enquiry registered earlier on the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India to enquire into the said allegations. The enquiry revealed prima-facie evidence of said private company having raised investments of several thousand of crores by issuing bogus land allotment letters to induce the investors. It was revealed that when the said company, on being directed by the Hon’ble High Court of Punjab & Haryana to wind up the scheme and to refund the investors, a similar fraudulent scheme was operated under the name of other/second private company. Funds collected from new investors of this second company were used to repay the earlier investors of first private company to stave off criminal prosecution. 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. It was further alleged that the accused i.e. Promoter / Directors of said private companies & others illegally collected huge funds amounting to thousands of crore from 5.5 crore Investors(approx) across the country under the garb of sale & purchase of agricultural land and promise of high returns. These schemes were running illegally and both the companies were allegedly engaged in fraudulent activities including forgery in their day-to-day operations.
A series of searches were conducted by CBI during February, 2014 at the office premises & residences of Directors and other suspected places in Delhi, Jaipur(Rajasthan), Chandigarh, Punjab & Haryana, which led to recovery of huge records & data relating to deposits from public and their mis-utilisation & diversion of funds, besides other incriminating documents. Investigation also revealed that the accused fraudulently diverted the alleged funds collected under the aegis of Jaipur based private company for purported investment in Australian companies. It was also alleged that 132.99 mn AUD(approx) found to have been diverted to Australian Companies.
During investigation, CBI had earlier arrested four accused including then CMD & Promoter Director of Chandigarh based private company; then MD & Promoter Director of Jaipur based private company and two then Directors of said Jaipur based Company on 08.01.2016. It was then found during investigation that none of the land allegedly had marking of plots and none of the land was found in the name of said companies at Delhi, NCR, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, even though the same was shown allotted by them to its investors. The investors had not allegedly received any plot / land allotment letter from the company and almost all the investors to whom the company had allotted the land were unpaid. Most of the land was either non-existent or Govt. land or not sold by the owner. It was also alleged that there were more than 23 lakh enrolled commission agents and out of them, more than 1700 were top level field associates and several of these top level commission agents used to get monthly commission in lakhs of rupees. A chargesheet was filed against the accused including private companies on 07.04.2016.
To investigate the role of other accused / suspects in this multi thousand crore financial scam, which had adversely affected the interests of millions of investors, further investigation of the case was continued.
During further investigation, 11 accused (all private persons) from Delhi, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar etc. were arrested on 22.12.2021.
A Supplementary Chargesheet against 27 accused including 03 private companies was filed on 31.12.2021 before the Court of Special Judge, CBI Cases, Rouse Avenue District Court Complex, New Delhi. Of those named in Supplementary Chargesheet include 11 accused (all private persons) arrested by CBI. It was alleged that the accused were the co-conspirators in this scam, who aided the prime accused and others in illegally operating investment schemes for earning quick & easy money, inducing investors to invest their funds in such investment schemes which offered lucrative returns to the investors and thereafter in diversion of such funds through dubious means with the motive of misappropriation.
The accused persons in the FIR:
i) M/s PGF, Ltd. having Corporate Office at New Delhi and Registered Office at Chandigarh.
ii) Shri Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, Managing Director, M/s PGF Ltd.
iii) Shri Harchand Singh, Director, M/s PGF Ltd.,
iv) Shri Chander Bhushan Dhillon, Whole Time Director, M/s PGF Ltd.
v) Shri Prem Seth, Whole Time Director, M/s PGF Ltd.,
vi) M/s PACL Ltd. having Registered Office at Jaipur(Rajasthan) and Corporate
Office at Barakhamba Road, New Delhi.
vii) Shri Sukhdev Singh, Managing Director, M/ss PACL Ltd.,
viii) Shri Gurmeet Singh, Whole Time Director, M/s PACL Ltd.,
ix) Shri Subrata Bhattacharya, Whole Time Director, M/s PACL Ltd.,
x) Shri Gurjant Singh Gill of M/s PACL Ltd.,
xi) Unknown others
