ED searches 44 premises across nine States in Pearl Agro Corporation Limited case

Enforcement Directorate probes PACL for ₹49,100 crore scam, tracing illegal funds to shell companies and properties in India and abroad.

The Enforcement Directorate has searched 44 premises across Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra, Telangana, Karnataka, West Bengal, Rajasthan, and Uttrakhand in the case of Pearl Agro Corporation Limited (PACL) and its group. The company had illegally collected at least ₹49,100 crore from 58 million investors over 18 years, as alleged.

The ED probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act is based on a First Information Report registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation. It was alleged that PACL collected money from the public through illegal collective investment schemes for allotting plots in different parts of the country or by giving the option to take back their expected tentative value of land in lieu of the allotted plot under the scheme on maturity.

“...PACL was banned by SEBI [Securities and Exchange Board of India] for illegally collecting at least ₹49,100 crore from 58 million investors over 18 years,” said the ED on Saturday.

According to the ED, the directors of PACL siphoned off the amounts received from investors by transferring them to shell companies located in Kolkata on the pretext of land development expenses. The funds were later withdrawn in cash and handed over to the key associates of PACL in Delhi. They were further transferred from Delhi via “hawala” to the companies incorporated in Dubai in the name of the key associates of PACL, for the purchase of immovable properties abroad.

The agency has already attached two immovable properties in Australia worth ₹462 crore in 2018, and movable and immovable properties worth ₹244 crore in India in 2022. “The details of the attached properties were shared with Justice Lodha Committee, appointed by the Supreme Court for overseeing the process of disposing of properties and refunding the amount to investors,” it said.

The ED has so far filed prosecution complaints against 11 entities, including PACL, and its related companies and main accused Nirmal Singh Bhagoo, along with his alleged close associates named K.S.Toor, M.L. Sehjpal, Prateek, C.P. Khandelwal, and others.