IT Correspondent
Imphal, April 18
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has refunded Rs 204.85 crore to 8,31,018 duped investors of the ”Pearls Agrotech Corporation Limited (PACL)”, which had collected over Rs 60,000 crore from nearly 6 crore investors across the country, through illegal collective investment schemes (CISs) over a period of 23 years.
The Justice (Retd.) R.M. Lodha Committee, set up by SEBI as directed by Supreme Court, initiated the process of payment to investors in PACL Ltd and as on date, payment aggregating Rs 204.85 crore has been effected to 8,31,018 investors, with claims up to Rs. 7,000/- a release issued by the SEBI stated.
Over 6 crore investors were cheated on the pretext of sale and development of agriculture land by PACL and Pearls Golden Forest Ltd (PGFL), under the ponzy scheme floated by Nirmal Singh Bhangoo and his three colleagues. They collected money from investors with a false promise of giving them agriculture land within 90 to 270 days and if not, handsome return on their investment. They also made fake allotments of land, although they never owned them.
The mobilisation of funds by PACL dates back to the year 1997, when based on a complaint, SEBI on 30 November 1999 and 10 December 1999, issued letters to PACL directing it to comply with the provisions of the collective investment scheme (CIS) regulations. However in response to PACL’s petition the Rajasthan High Court on 28 November 2003, quashed SEBI’s order and ruled that PACL’s schemes were not CIS as defined under Section 11AA of the SEBI Act. In response to SEBI’s appeal, the SC quashed the Rajasthan HC order and on 25 February 2013, directed SEBI to investigate the matter and take appropriate action.
Based on Supreme Court(SC)’s directives, the Justice (retd.) R.M. Lodha Committee was formed to recover the money of the duped investors. The committee initiated the process of refunds in two phases — during the period January 2, 2018, to March 31, 2018, and February 8, 2019 to July 31, 2019.
In the first phase, refunds were effected in respect of 189103 investors having claim amount up to Rs.2500/-. Under the second refund process, 2,77,544 investors having a claim amount up to Rs 5,000 were paid in December last year.
In 2014, SEBI attached all bank, demat accounts and mutual fund portfolios of PACL and its eight directors and promoters, for its failure to comply with its order dated 22 August 2014 directing it to wind up the schemes and refund Rs 49,100 crore to the investors within three months from the date of the order. PACL filed an appeal before the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT), which was dismissed on 12 August 2015.
In December 2015, SEBI ordered attachment of all assets of PACL and its nine promoters and directors for their failure to refund the money to the investors.
SEBI had asked PACL to refund the money by its order dated August 22, 2014.
Subsequently, the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) registered a case against PACL and based on the CBI complaint, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) lodged an first information report (FIR) in 2015. Bhangoo and his three colleagues were arrested by CBI in 2016. In September 2018, the ED filed a charge-sheet against PACL and attached Australia-based assets of the Pearls Group worth Rs.472 crore.
