Central agency raids PACL offices in State

Admin   |   13 January, 2016   |   1097   |   3980

The noose appears to be tightening around New Delhi-based PACL (Pearls Agrotech Corporation Limited) with a Central intelligence agency, conducting raids across its seven offices in the State, on Tuesday. It is learnt that some more incriminating documents were found.

The PACL scam had come into light sometime around 2012, when the CID of the then unified Andhra Pradesh had filed cases under IPC Sections 420 and 120-B, Section 5 of APPDFE Act, 1999 and Section 4, 5 and 6 read with 2 (C) of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Scheme (Banning) Act, 1978.

PACL has its corporate office in New Delhi and its registered office is in Jaipur, Rajasthan. It is reported that it has been engaged in carrying out real estate business since 2004, by collecting deposits from customers without obtaining any permission from RBI, SEBI and ROC.

As per a report by the investigating authorities in 2012, the company’s business activities across India amount to a whopping Rs. 56,000 crore.

The company has its operations spread across the states of UP, MP, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Orissa, Chattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Pondichery, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

As per sources in the CID, basically the company was indulging in money circulation activity by introducing various schemes and offering its marketing executives commissions in binary way.

It has collected deposits in the guise of real estate but did not register even a single piece of land in the names of the depositors. In this way, it has duped depositors in Visakhapatnam, Rajahmundry, Guntur, Vijayawada, Ongole, Nellore and Kurnool.

As per the investigation, in Andhra Pradesh alone, it has done business of more than Rs. 1,600 crore, but hardly spent about Rs. 75 crore towards purchase of lands.

No allotment or registration of land has taken place to any one of the customers.

It is estimated that the total number of depositors are around 10 lakhs in AP and around 27 lakhs in all over India and the company has collected to the tune of about Rs. 56,000 crore, across the country and about Rs. 1,600 crore in AP alone, before 2012.

Based on investigations by the CID, the Home Department has already attached about 1,300 acres in Guntur, Prakasam, Krishna and Nellore districts in 2014.

The PACL office in New Delhi built over 11,360 sq ft and its sprawling 17,030 sq ft office in Secunderabad were also attached by AP Police and properties worth about Rs. 150 crore were attached in the past. AP Police have already freezed Rs. 5.75 crore in the bank accounts of the company.

The main accused are Chairman and Managing Director of the company D. Sukhdev Singh, Sukhdev Singh, Tarlochan Singh, Suprata Bhattacharya, Gurmeeth Singh, S.K. Gaur, Nirmal Singh Bhangoo and Chandramouli Reddy.