New Delhi, March 7,2023:  The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday said that an absconding accused, wanted in connection with the chit fund scam to the tune of thousands of crore of rupees involving businessman Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, has been brought to India from Fiji.

As many as Rs 45,000 crore was cheated by accused Harchand Singh Gill and his aides by raising investments through issue of bogus land allotment letters.

The CBI said that Gill was on the run in this case and the trial court had issued an open dated non-bailable warrant of arrest against him, and a ‘Red Notice’ was issued against him by the Interpol.

According to an agency official, his arrest is the result of initiatives taken by the CBI during ‘Operation Trishul” last year, when request was made for issuance of Red Notice against him was sent. A request for his deportation was pursued through the NCB, Suva (Fiji) and a CBI team brought him back to India upon being his deported from Fiji.

In 2014, the SEBI had asked private firm Pearls Agrotech Corporation Ltd to return Rs 49,000 crore to its investors. Gill was Director and shareholder of the firm which allegedly cheated its investors.

The CBI said that Gill conspired with other Directors of the company to operate the collective investment scheme illegally without any statutory approval.

The CBI registered this case on February 19, 2014 against then Chairman, CMD and Promoter-Director of Pearls Agrotech Corporation after conducting a preliminary enquiry, at the direction of the Supreme Court, which found prima-facie evidence that the firm raised investments of several thousands of crores of rupees by issuing bogus land allotment letters.

On being directed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to wind up the scheme and to refund the investors, the firm had begun operating a similar fraudulent scheme in the name of another 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 were 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. The accused and others illegally collected huge funds amounting to thousands of crores of rupees from 5.5 crore investors across the country under the garb of sale and purchase of agricultural land and promise of high returns,” the CBI said.

The official said that 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 the CBI during February 2014 at multiple locations belonging to the accused across several states which had led to the recovery of huge records and data relating to deposits from public and their mis-utilisation and diversion of funds.

The CBI also learnt that the accused fraudulently diverted all the funds collected under the aegis of a Jaipur-based private company for purported investment in Australian companies, and as much as (Australian) $132.99 million were diverted.

It was learnt that none of the land allegedly had plot marking and none of the land was found in the name of said companies at Delhi, NCR, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh, even though the same was shown allotted by them to its investors.

Almost all the investors to whom the company had allotted the land were unpaid. Most of the land was either non-existent or government land or not sold by the owner. There were more than 23 lakh enrolled commission agents and out of them, more than 1,700 were top level field associates and several of them used to get monthly commission in lakhs of rupees.

In 2016, the CBI made four arrests in the matter and also filed its first charge sheet.

In 2021, the CBI arrested 11 more persons in the matter, and filed its first supplementary charge sheet.