“The government has started the process of taking possession of all properties of chit fund company Pearls in Punjab,” an official statement quoting the Chief Minister said.
He said it has been decided to start the process of returning their money to the people by auctioning it soon after completing the legal process.
The state vigilance bureau last week asked all deputy commissioners to verify the entries made in the land records pertaining to 2,239 properties in the state identified by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as properties recorded in the name of Pearls Agro-Tech Ltd (PACL), its directors and associate companies.
The ownership details of these properties have also been included in the list shared by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
In February, the Chief Minister had asked deputy commissioners to identify all properties of the Pearls Group in their respective districts.
At a virtual meeting, he had said the Pearls Group had committed a huge fraud with the people for which it must be made accountable.
The Pearls group had allegedly cheated thousands of people by illegally operating different investment schemes.
During the campaigning for the state assembly polls, Mann had promised that after the formation of the AAP government, the hard-earned money of people would be returned by confiscating assets of chit fund companies.
The CBI had arrested Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, CMD of Pearls Golden Forest Ltd, and three others on January 8, 2016, in the Ponzi-scam case in which the company is said to have cheated 5.5-crore investors.
It had registered the case in 2014 on directions from the Supreme Court.
–Ajit Weekly News
vg/uk
News Credits – I A N S
