Thursday, December 28, 2017

NHM result fiasco: UP govt suspends HR head, revised results soon

Taking serious note of discrepancies in published results, Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in Uttar Pradesh has ordered a probe and suspended Human Resources (HR) Head Sandeep Saxena, National Health Mission (NHM). This is in connection with glaring irregularities detected in results of written exams for the recruitment of contractual staff nurses and other staff by NHM in Uttar Pradesh.

Taking note of complaints by candidates, the Health Minister Dr Siddharth Nath Singh on Wednesday suspended HR Head of the NHM Sandeep Saxena and ordered an inquiry for result declared on December 22.

“It was lapse on part of the human resources department of the National Health Mission. We have placed the HR Head under suspension. New cut off marks are being worked out and the state government has ordered for releasing revised results as per the new cut off for all categories,” said Dr Singh.

Acting on the state government’s directions, the NHM Director Pankaj Kumar said that the new cut off marks for the general and reserved category candidates have been set and revised results would be declared shortly.

After media highlighed irregularities, the NHM Director admitted discrepancies in the results declared on December 22 and blamed the HR department. He said that the cut off for reserved candidates should not be as low as 3 out of 90. Similarly, he said that the cut off for the general category candidates was also very high.

“We are setting new cut off marks for both general and reserved category candidates to remove the anomalies. The result would be revised as per the new cut off and the revised results would be declared shortly,” said Durector.

After inviting applications from the candidates, the NHM had conducted a written exam on November 5 2017 for 4688 contractual staff, nurse, ANM, PRO and lab technicians etc. The result of the written exams was declared on December 22.

Many candidates were shocked when they found that reserved category candidate obtaining as low as 3 out of 90 marks were declared selected while general candidates getting 64 out of 90 were failed in the written exams.

The result soon went viral on social media with candidates alleging recruitment scam in NHM and foul play in evaluation of results. Candidates who failed to make the cut had threatened to file a case against the NHM authorities.

When contacted, the Principal Secretary Medical Health and Family Welfare Prashant Trivedi had initially denied any bungling in results but was forced to change tune later.

After much outrage the state government has decided to withheld the result and ordered the state unit of NHM to publish the revised result at the earliest after correcting all the alleged discrepancies.


The written exam for about 4688 contractual posts of Staff Nurse, ANM, PRO, Lab Technicians etc was held on November 5 2017 all over the state. The results for the same were declared on December 22. But after detection of irregularities, candidates are now raising questions over the evaluation of examination copies. The Principal Secretary Health Prashant Trivedi has assured to look into the anomalies brought to his knowledge. “I have issued directions to check results again,” said Trivedi.


Trivedi said that written exam was only a part of the selection process and only those who have cleared the interviews and other technical processes will be selected for the NHM. “The final result and selection process are yet to be completed,” he clarified.  “Only those candidates would be selected who cleared all the selection criterion. We will ensure that no bogus candidates gets job under the current NHM recruitment drive to fulfil existing vacancies,” he added.

Candidates have alleged glaring discrepancies in the results declared for recruitment of about 4700 nurses and other staff under the National Health Mission (NHM) in Uttar Pradesh.

In the results declared on December 22 for the written test, those who got 64 out of 90 marks were declared failed while those who obtained merely 3 and 8 marks were declared passed. The results went viral on social media indicating towards a possible scam in the recruitment process. 

2 Romanians held in Delhifor ATM fraud in Mumbai

A Romanian couple has been nabbed from Delhi in connection with the debit card skimming case in which almost 100 people who used an ATM in Mumbai's central suburb of Mulund lost money from their accounts which collectively amounted to Rs 38 lakh.

According to the Navghar police, they had earlier nabbed two local men who were instrumental in providing logistical support to the foreigners who skimmed cards at the ATM and withdrew money in Delhi.

ATM skimming involves thieves using hidden electronics to steal personal information stored on cards. Think of it as identity theft of debit cards.

The police said the accused foreign nationals came to the country on a tourist visa from Romania and had installed a skimmer — a thrice in the ATM in Mulund. After copying card data, they started withdrawing money from ATMs in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

"We got our first lead when we got CCTV footage of the foreigners along with the two locals. We apprehended the latter. During their interrogation, they pointed us to the foreigners. We tracked the foreigners using their phones, and our team in Delhi nabbed them. We have also got CCTV footage of the time when they are withdrawing money," said a police officer

"The two locals were also involved in a similar case in Kurla two years ago in which three Romanian nationals were arrested," he added.

The police got in touch with the Romanian embassy in New Delhi, seeking details of the recently nabbed couple's passports.

As many as 100people who used an ATM in Mulund were in for a shock when they got text messages saying money had been withdrawn using their cards, even when the cards were in their possession. The victims had approached Navghar police station and lodged a case.

The accused couple will be brought to the city on Friday. This is the second instance in two weeks where Romanian nationals were found to have been instrumental in committing cyber fraud.

Last Friday, the Pune police nabbed three Romanian nationals for allegedly cloning ATM cards and withdrawing money to the tune of Rs 28 lakh from over 100 bank accounts after stealing details of more than 1,000 cards. They had also used skimmers.

Earlier, the Mumbai police had arrested a Bulgarian national involved in skimming and cloning the cards.

CBI arrest its own staffer for big tatkal ticket scam

The CBI busted a railway ticketing racket on Wednesday by arresting one of its own programmers. The scam impacted lakhs of citizens across the country as many failed to get confirmed tickets, especially tatkal ones, because of it. It also exposes the vulnerability of Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) software.

Ajay Garg, an assistant programmer with the CBI since 2012, was arrested from Delhi. His associate Anil Kumar Gupta was nabbed from Uttar Pradesh’s Jaunpur and is being brought to Delhi on transit remand.

The agency has registered a case of criminal conspiracy under Sections of the Information Technology Act for making an illegal railway ticketing software. The accused had developed a tatkal (ticketing at short notice) software with distributor Gupta. They sold the software to tour and travel operators across the country.

Travel operators using this software booked tickets in advance and created a shortage.

Garg received payments through Bitcoin and hawala routes. Before joining the CBI, he worked as a programmer with the IRCTC during 2007-2011, and knew the vulnerabilities of the ticketing software of the Railways. Garg knew that the Railways software allowed him to book hundreds of tickets in the morning. He used 800 to 1,000 customer IDs at one go.

The CBI has also identified 10 travel agents who were using this software. They include three of Mumbai and seven of Jaunpur.

Garg was using proxy and foreign servers to remove any trail.

It was also alleged that Garg was collecting money for the use of the software by certain booking agents and had amassed huge wealth. It was also revealed that Gupta on behalf of Garg was allegedly receiving money from dealers for the use of the software through Bitcoin and hawala networks.

Searches were conducted at 14 places, including Delhi, Mumbai and Jaunpur, which resulted in recoveries of Rs 89.42 lakh, gold jewellery valued at Rs 61.29 lakh, 15 laptops, 15 hard disks, 52 mobile phones, 24 SIM cards, 10 notebooks, 6 routers, 4 dongles, 19 pen drives and other incriminating material from the premises of the accused and others.

ED attaches more assets, worth Rs 177 cr, in NSEL scam

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday provisionally attached fresh assets valued at over Rs 177 crore in connection with the money laundering case against NSEL.

The officials have attached 10 immovable properties of Surender Gupta of PD Agro Processors Pvt Ltd and Dunar Foods Ltd, a major defaulter of NSEL having a market value of Rs 177.33 crore under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The total worth of attached assets in the case stands at Rs 2,890 crore.

The ED officials said the company, P D Agro Processors Pvt Ltd, has fraudulently obtained huge funds from NSEL by trading on the exchange platform against the non-existent/fictitious sale of their commodity, which is paddy/rice. The money trail has revealed that a huge chunk of proceeds of crime has been transferred to M/s Dunar Foods Ltd, a sister concern of PD Agro Processors Pvt Ltd."

The ED, along with the Economic Offences Wing of the Mumbai Police, had registered a criminal case in 2013 under the PMLA to probe NSEL and others associated with it for defrauding 13,000 investors to the tune of Rs 5,600 crore.

Saturday, December 23, 2017

3 Romanians arrested for cloning ATM cards

The Pune police arrested three Romanian nationals for cloning ATM cards with the help of skimmer and withdrawing nearly Rs 28 lakh from 138 accounts within eight days. Police say the fraudsters got ATM card details of 1,030 people – all of whom had withdrawn money from PNB ATM at Pashan in October.

Pune police nabbed the three from Vasai and suspect they are part of a global fraud. They have been identified as Erima Dragos Junete (26), Lazar Alim Kresti (22) and Balan Floria Christinel (44).

The fraud came to light when bank manager of Punjab National Bank's Pashan circle approached police stating that money of their depositors was withdrawn without their knowledge.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone III), Ganesh Shinde, said, "We found that the fraudsters used a skimmer at the ATM center to steal confidential information belonging to the authentic ATM card holders."

Assistant police inspector Sanjay Thenge of Chatushrungi police station, said, "The skimmer is a device that can be attached where an ATM card is inserted to withdraw money. When a card is inserted, the skimmer's sensor copies the confidential details. The fraudsters also used a transparent keypad, with the help of which they were able to decipher the password of the ATM cards."

Senior police inspector Dayanand Dhome, in charge of Chatushrungi police station, said "In the span of eight days. the fraudsters managed to withdraw nearly Rs 28 lakh from 138 accounts. Acting on a tip-off, we sent a team to Vasai and asked our team in Bangalore to join them. On Tuesday, after the fraudsters withdrew some money from an ATM in Vasai, we managed to catch them red-handed."

The arrested trio has been sent to police custody till December 28.

In a similar case in Mumbai, Navghar police are probing the case of cloning and skimming at the ATM kiosk of a private bank in Mulund. A bank user's card details were compromised and money withdrawn illegally. Mumbai police has dispatched a team to Delhi and Ghaziabad to nab the fraudsters.

The police source claimed that they have CCTV footage of the suspects, who installed the skimmer machine at the ATM machine, and withdrew money from the accounts of people in Delhi and Ghaziabad.

As many as 40 people, who used the ATM in Mulund, were shocked after their card details were used to withdraw money while the cards were in their possession. All the victims had approached Navghar police station on Monday and case was registered.

Friday, December 1, 2017

From HSBC to Bangladesh Central Bank: Four times when a global network of financial laundering was uncovered

As the controversial Panama Papers continue to make headlines, a look at scandals that uncovered a global network of financial laundering.

HSBC
In 2008, Herve Falciani - an employee with HSBC Suisse - stole details of 1,30,000 customers who had secret accounts with the bank. The data, leaked to the press in 2015, revealed that HSBC had aided clients in over 200 countries evade taxes on accounts worth nearly $119 billion.

Individual investigations in countries like the US also found that the bank's 'laundering list' of clients included Mexican drug cartels and rogue nations. While HSBC didn't face criminal charges, it was fined 40 million Swiss francs by Geneva for "organisational deficiencies".

Satyam Computer Services
In 2009, the company's founder B Ramalinga Raju confessed to cooking the company's books to the tune of Rs 7,136 crore. The Enforcement Directorate also charged Raju and his cohorts for diverting several hundred crores from the accounts of Satyam towards investments for another company called Maytas (an inversion of 'Satyam'). An RBI official told the media in 2009 that, "In all, there is at least Rs 600 crore in six bank accounts in Mauritius that were linked to the Satyam scam." In 2015, Raju was sentenced to prison and fined Rs 5.5 crore.

In March this year, Bangladesh's central bank reported that $100 million had been stolen from its account at the US Federal Reserve by cyber criminals. $81 million of that money was traced to the Philippines, where it was believed to have been remitted into the accounts of three casinos. Another $20 million had reportedly been transferred to Sri Lanka. In response, anti-money laundering officials in Philippines began a formal investigation into local institutions, which had abetted the illegal movement of these funds while Bangladesh's central banker Atiur Rahman resigned.

Funds scam: CBI raids Srijan office at Sabour

A team of CBI officials on Saturday raided the Srijan Mahila Vikas Sahyog Samiti (SMVSS) office at Sabour in connection with the multi-crore scam related to transfer of government funds to the bank accounts of the NGO.
During its six-hour raid, the CBI, which took up the investigation from the special investigation team of Economic Offences Unit, interrogated SMVSS employees, including its assistant manager Sunita Mishra, accountant Bindu Thakur and others. The team gathered vital clues about the modus operandi of the scam adopted by the SMVSS, government officials, bank employees, netas and businessmen, who exploited government money parked in different banks.
The CBI team also gathered information from the hidden files at the SMVSS office, sources said, adding officials of the central probe agency took note of several photographs of the state government officials, politicians, businessmen and self-styled social workers with SMVSS founder late Manorama Devi, her daughter-in-law and present secretary of the NGO Priya Kumar alias Rajni Priya and son Amit Kumar.

Those under CBI lens are Arun Kumar, district welfare officer, Arun Kumar Singh, retired chief manager of Bank of Baroda, Prem Kumar (stenographer of Bhagalpur DM), Rakesh Yadav, Rakesh Jha, Ajay Pandey (officials of Indian Bank), Satish Jha, Sarita Jha (Srijan), Banshidhar Jha (proprietor of a printing press), Binod Singh (driver of Ajay Pandey), Atul Kumar Raman (Bank of Baroda), Pankaj Kumar Jha (cooperative officer, Supaul), Vijay Kumar Gupta (Banka Central Cooperative Bank) and retired branch manager of Cooperative Bank Sudhanshu Kumar Das.
Former land acquisition officer and retired ADM Rajiv Ranjan Singh, secretary of SMVSS Priya Kumar, Amit Kumar (husband of Priya Kumari), expelled BJP leader Bipin Sharma, RLSP leader Dipak Verma, businessmen P K Ghosh, N V Raju, Kishore Ghosh and managing committee members of the NGO, including its president Subhalaxmi Prasad, Seema Devi, Jasima Khatoon, Rajrani Verma, Aparna Verma, Rubi Kumari, Rani Devi, Sunita Devi and Suna Devi are also under CBI scanner.

Sources said CBI officials have prepared inventories of the files of different government departments besides seizing pen-drives, computers, hard-disks and incriminating documents from the offices and business establishments of the absconding accused persons.
The district administration officials refused to comment on the CBI raid.

Qnet scam: Padma Bhushan awardee and former World Billiards Champion Michael Ferreira arrested

Former world billiards champion Michael Ferreira and three others accused in a case of Rs 400-crore alleged fraud involving the multi-level-marketing company QNet have been taken into custody by Hyderabad Police and brought here from Mumbai.

A Hyderabad Police team had last week submitted an application seeking their custody in connection with the case registered by them.

A Mumbai court then granted transit remand and the Hyderabad Police took them into custody.

"The four directors of the company, including Michael Ferreira, have been brought to Hyderabad from Mumbai on warrant," a senior police official attached to Central Crime Station (CCS), a wing of Hyderabad Police, said today.

They have been brought here as part of further investigation and will be interrogated, he said.

The Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) had taken them into custody on September 30 this year in connection with the QNet case.

The EOW has so far arrested 19 persons in the case.

QNet and its franchisee firms allegedly sold products such as magnetic disks with 'healing' properties, herbal medicines and holiday schemes. The company is accused of using the banned 'binary pyramid' model in its marketing schemes, apart from duping the investors.

The FIR was registered in Mumbai in August 2013 under the Prize, Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978 and Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors Act.

Special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat had earlier told the court in Mumbai that Ferreira held 80 per cent shares in a franchisee of Hong Kong-based QNet.

QNet ran a 'Ponzi scheme', seeking investments between Rs 30,000 to Rs 7.5 lakh, the prosecutor had said, adding the investors never got the high returns they were promised.

The money earned by QNet was "laundered" and diverted out of the country, Gharat had told the court, adding that Ferreira's interrogation was necessary to find its "destination".

It has come to light that several cases have been registered against QNet and its earlier companies in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi and Telangana states, Mohanty said.

Ferreira is a director of the accused company Vihaan Direct Selling India Pvt Ltd, which is a master franchise of M/s QNet in India.

The four accused will be produced in a local court and police will file a petition seeking their custody for further interrogation, the DCP said.

Police is also probing into the allegations that QNet cheated unemployed persons and software engineers on the pretext of providing employment and business, he added.

Around 60 complaints have been received in the city against the company, police said.

CBI to probe 2009 land acquisition scam in Gurugram

HIGHLIGHTS

  • The SC directed the CBI to probe how, while 1,400 acres were proposed to be acquired in 2009, only 87 acres were actually acquired, leaving the rest to builders and colonisers to purchase.
  • The bench agreed with the landowners' counsel who said the acquisition was a colourable exercise and a misuse of powers vested under the land acquisition law.


NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered a CBI probe into the then Bhupinder Singh Hooda government's decision to notify acquisition of 1,400 acres of land in Gurugram allegedly to help builders and colonisers at the cost of farmers and landowners in 2009.
Dismissing a Haryana government appeal against the 2014 judgment of the Punjab and Haryana high court, a bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Mohan M Shantanagoudar directed the CBI to probe how, while 1,400 acres were proposed to be acquired in 2009, only 87 acres were actually acquired, leaving the rest to builders and colonisers to purchase.
Asking CBI to file its report before the court in six months, the bench agreed with the landowners' counsel, Jasbir Singh Malik, who said the acquisition was a colourable exercise and a misuse of powers vested under the land acquisition law.
On June 2, 2009, the Haryana government issued a notification intending to acquire 1,400 acres in villages Badshapur, Behrampur, Nangli Umarpura, Tigara, Ullahwas, Kadarpur, Ghatta and Medwas in Sohna tehsil of Gurugram district for development of "residential sectors 58 to 63 and residential-commercial sectors 65 to 67 in Gurugram as shown in development plan under Haryana Urban Development Authority Act".

This was questioned by a large number of landowners after they found that the final notification drastically curtailed the acquisition to 87 acres of land and a major portion of the remaining land had been allotted to builders. The high court said the public purpose — development of residential and residential-commercial sectors in Gurugram — could not be met with acquisition of 87 acres and hence the final notification did not conform to the public purpose as stated in June 2009.
The landowners alleged their land had been acquired by the government so as to give undue favours to private builders. The high court had said: "The petitioners appear to be right in contending that since they did not come under the pressure tactics of the land mafia prowling in the area, their land have been usurped (through acquisition) out of vengeance."

The Haryana government had contended that 87 acres of land was acquired to construct schools, hospitals, community centres and other utility buildings, but the high court had said the builders were given land, it was their duty, and not that of the state government, to provide for these civic amenities.
The high court had read through the design of the state government in the sham acquisition process and had said: "State machinery has bent over backwards to favour private colonisers (sic)...the collector, for reasons best known to him, completely abdicated his duty and sent a report to favour the cause of private builders. The petitioners' land is being expropriated only because they refused to come to the terms unilaterally dictated to them by the state-sponsored developers."

Srijan scam: CBI files FIR against Bihar NGO

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered an FIR against Bihar-based NGO Srijan Mahila Vikas Samiti, which is at the centre of the eponymous multi-crore Srijan scam, news agency ANI reported on Saturday.
The investigation agency also filed FIRs against the Director and ex-Director of the Bank of Baroda's Saharsa and Bhagalpur branches respectively, along with the ex-cashier and head assistant of the Land Acquisition Office in Saharsa.
The Bihar government had on August 18 recommended a CBI probe into the scam. Government funds to the tune of Rs 950 crore were allegedly diverted illegally to the account of Srijan NGO in Bhagalpur.

The NGO allegedly siphoned off hundreds of crores of rupees in connivance with bank officials and government officials and employees. So far, 15 persons have been arrested in connection to the case, though one key arrested accused, Mahesh Mandal, died earlier this month of illness, the Bihar police had said on August 21.
The state assembly was adjourned sine die on Friday after furor over the scam, which was marked by sustained protests, walkouts and eviction of Opposition members.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar, who brought the scam in public domain for the first time on August 8 while speaking at an event on World Earth day, said "culprits would be traced even from 'patal' (beneath the earth) and government money swindled would be reclaimed at any cost."

Narada scam: CBI summons state minister Subrata Mukherjee, TMC MP Kakali Dastidar

The CBI has summoned panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee and TMC MP Kakali Ghosh Dastidar in connection with its probe into Narada sting case of 2014. Only a day ago, the CBI had summoned another Trinamool MP, Sougata Roy, in connection with the probe.

The agency had also interrogated party MP Sultan Ahmed and his brother Iqbal Ahmed, a Trinamool Congress MLA and deputy mayor of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), in connection with its probe into Narada scam.

Sources in Trinamool Congress here said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is utterly displeased as the CBI had started issuing summon notices to many of her MPs and MLAs before the July 17 presidential elections and Trinamool's rally here on July 21.

It is learnt that CBI on Wednesday summoned Mukherjee who on Thursday sought time from the probe agency to appear before them.

"I shall go to CBI office any day after July 21," Muykherjee told reporters on Thursday. Instead of appearing personally before the CBI, Mukherjee on Thursday sent his lawyer to the probe agency's office to inform them that he would appear before them any day after July 21.

The CBI is probing the Narada sting operation scam following a Supreme court order and had already filed an FIR against a dozen of Trinamool Congress leaders and one IPS officer. 

Could NSEL scam have been nipped in the bud? Probably, yes

Haven't we heard the judiciary often lament about routinely tardy and occasionally compromised investigation being the bane of the justice delivery system? While that is projected as the 'truth', it does not appear to be the complete truth. What would you do if one chooses to stubbornly refuse to change one's opinion or course of action or chooses forbearance over forthrightness?

It all appears to have started sometime in May 2011, in a meeting of the sub-committee of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC). Doesn't the name itself overwhelm you? Well, it didn't overwhelm an unscrupulous promoter of a Public Financial Institution (PFI), the very same specie that the FSDC is supposed to lord over and keep in check.

A bare reading of the minutes of that meeting, which aren't couched in financial latin, fortunately, made two things abundantly clear to the mandarins in the room. National Spot Exchange (NSEL) was not regulated by anyone in that room and since it is not regulated, the banks providing clearing services to NSEL must be asked to stop doing so forthwith, since it is a clear violation of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act (PSS).

The FSDC comprises representatives of the RBI, SEBI, FMC (since then merged with SEBI), IRDAI and PFRDA -all grandees of the financial regulatory world.

A lay person may wonder what would happen if the banks stop providing clearing services to NSEL. Plain speak, it shuts NSEL down, which is what the minutes did not emphatically say, but should have.


That would have meant that the scam which ballooned over to a whopping Rs 5,600 crore, could have been nipped in the bud, the outstanding exposure being Rs 1,000 crore at that time.

What must be said in their defence, however is, they did write a letter to someone, whom they thought would do something about it. Bravo.

On July 31, 2013, NSEL went spectacularly bust. Most lay people shouldn't be grudged their naivete, if they thought that these agencies would have initiated prosecution, after NSEL went bust.

The aggrieved investors have had to invoke the writ jurisdiction of different high courts to get these regulatory agencies to even initiate a probe.

One such writ petition has been heard and seems to have been grudgingly complied with, while few others are yet to be heard.One of the writ petitions pending adjudication, should worry all of us, particularly in the postdemonetisation India. The PSS Act enjoins RBI to prosecute every instance of default in any "payment system".

According to an audit report by Grant Thornton, there were over two thousand payment default instances in NSEL. Each of the digital payments service provider is a "payment system", over which the RBI alone has regulatory oversight.

We sincerely hope, that those who are recent converts and believers in "digital money" do not get a proverbial 440-volt shock some day , the kind we are still reeling under.

Another interesting twist to the tale is that of insurance.NSEL had insured the "goods" in their warehouses, which are nowhere to be found. The insurance companies have rejected their claim, according to whom, NSEL is complicit in the fraud.Apparently, the insurance regulator IRDAI has also arrived at the same conclusion.

NSEL has filed an appeal in the High Court against their order.We sincerely pray the High Court arrives at a conclusion sooner than later, in which case, either the insurance money is available to be distributed to investors, or the High Court upholds the IRDAI view. The question as to whether NSEL is complicit in the fraud is germane to the controversy in more ways than one.

Whether we are a restive insolent lynch mob or exasperated victims, aggrieved by the utter lack of sensitivity of the powers that be, only time will tell. But we will keep knocking at their doors trying to awaken their conscience. 

Big scam in recruitment of postmen in Maharashtra unearthed

HIGHLIGHTS

  • A mega scam in recruitment for over 2,400 vacancies has been unearthed in Maharashtra.
  • Police are interrogating the project managers from Manipal Technologies Ltd (MTL), which had won a bid in 2015 to conduct the recruitment process.
  • The Economic Offences Wing said that the selection process had been cancelled in Maharashtra.

The vigilance department of the Department of Posts has unearthed a mega scam in recruitment for over 2,400 vacancies, in Maharashtra. The Mumbai police registered an FIR in August against Manipal Technologies Ltd (MTL), which had won a bid in 2015 to conduct the recruitment process for postmen, mail guards and other staffers in the postal department.
The FIR was filed on the basis of a complaint by an assistant post master general in Mumbai and names P V Mallya and other directors of MTL. Dubbing it a big scam, Justice A M Badar of the Bombay high court refused to grant pre-arrest bail to Mallya on November 3.
He said, "The case in hand appears to be a case of a big scam in recruitment in the department of posts... Selection to public employment has to be a fair and impartial process, based on merit of eligible candidates... This job was entrusted by DoP with utmost trust on the company... Prima facie, it is seen that, the company has breached the trust reposed by it and had shown nepotism and partiality in selecting candidates for obvious reasons.''
The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) said that the selection process had been cancelled in Maharashtra. No one has been arrested so far. Police are interrogating the project managers from the company which was in charge of the recruitment process.
The exam was conducted in March 2015 and the results were declared in March 2016. It was held to fill in 1,680 posts of postmen, 21 mail guards and 733 multitask servants (MTS).

The chief postmaster general had ordered a vigilance enquiry when an Amravati postmaster first complained last April that a postman selected through the recruitment process had a photograph of a different candidate on his online application form.
The vigilance report said that 25 of the 194 postmen posted in Maharashtra scored high in Marathi, but didn't know the language and over 70 candidates were found with identical email addresses.

Few of the selected candidates had not appeared for the exam, others had not signed the paper or their signatures online and on the answer paper differed; addresses of some candidates were identical, and cell phone numbers were the same for some, said the vigilance report.
Of the 24 selected as postmen,12 had identical cell phone numbers; of 21 selected as MTS, 11 did. Candidates selected from states other than Maharashtra, such as Haryana, Bihar, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, had addresses from a same locality, said the FIR.

Medical admissions scam: CBI arrests retired Odisha high court judge

HIGHLIGHTS

  • CBI arrested retired Odisha HC justice Ishrat Masroor Quddusi and five others for conspiring to admit students in debarred medical colleges
  • Quddusi has been accused of not only legally guiding the functionaries of private medical college but also assured favourable settlement of their case in SC.

The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday arrested six persons, including a retired Odisha high court judge, for enabling private medical colleges to admit students to MBBS courses despite a Supreme Court order barring them from doing so.
The agency placed under arrest retired high court justice Ishrat Masroor Quddusi, a middleman Biswanath Agrawala, owners of private medical college - BP Yadav and Palash Yadav, and a hawala operator Ram Dev Saraswat in connection with the case. Later in the day it also arrested one Bhawna Pandey. The agency had earlier booked them under charges of criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act.
After registering an FIR against Quddusi and four other accused, the CBI had conducted raids at eight locations in Delhi, Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and Bhubaneswar on Wednesday.
CBI sleuths recovered Rs 1.91 crore during the raids, including at Quddusi's residence in south Delhi's Greater Kailash.
Quddusi has been accused of not only legally guiding the functionaries of private medical college but also assured favourable settlement of their case in the Supreme Court.
The agency had received an information that Prasad Institute of Medical College was among 46 colleges barred by the government from admitting medical students for the forthcoming one or two years because of substandard facilities and non-fulfilment of the required criteria.
B P Yadav and Palash Yadav, who run the institute, had challenged the debarment in the Supreme Court earlier this year.
On August 1, the SC directed the government to consider the materials on record afresh, pertaining to the issue of confirmation or otherwise of the letter of permission granted to the petitioner college.

The government then afforded an opportunity of hearing to the college and passed a reasoned decision on August 10, 2017 to debar the college from admitting fresh students for the two years - 2017-18 and 2018-19 and also authorised MCI to encash the bank guarantees of Rs two crores.

CBI received information that B P Yadav got in touch with Justice (retd) I M Quddusi and Bhawana Pandey through one Sudhir Giri of Venkateshwara Medical College in Meerut and conspired for getting the matter settled.
"Information further revealed that on the advice of I M Quddusi, the petition was withdrawn from the apex court on August 15, 2017 and a petition was filed in in Allahabad High Court," said CBI in its FIR.
Investigating agencies have also lodged an FIR against two IAS officers serving in Puducherry - former health secretary B R Babu and Narendra Kumar, who headed the committee looking after admissions to medical colleges - for allegedly denying admissions to deserving students and selling seats to others at "exorbitant" rates.

PDS scam worth Rs 600 crore unearthed in Uttarakhand

A scam worth over Rs 600 crore has been detected in the public distribution system of Uttarakhand leading to the dismissal of the regional food controller in Kumaon division of the state.

"Vishnu Singh Dhanik's dismissal was ordered late on Monday night after preliminary investigations by an SIT headed by Udhamsingh Nagar District Magistrate Niraj Khairwal revealed large-scale financial irregularities and other anomalies at public distribution system (PDS) godowns located in Kumaon region," an official release said.

Dhanik was given two extensions by the previous Harish Rawat-led Congress government in the state.

The irregularities worth over Rs 600 crore were detected in the course of documentary verification conducted at PDS godowns in Rudrapur, Kashipur and Kichcha by the SIT, the release said.

Principal secretary and commissioner Food and Civil Supplies has been asked to take stern action against all other officials and employees involved in the scam which took place over the last two years.

Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had constituted the SIT on August 2 following a number of complaints about the beneficiaries either not getting subsidised food grains or being served poor quality of grains, under the PDS arrangement.

This is the second scam to be detected by the Trivendra Singh Rawat government after the NH 74 scam, which was also unearthed in Udhamsingh Nagar district.

Bhagalpur scam: DM’s steno, six others held

 The stenographer in Bhagalpur DM's confidential section, Prem Kumar, was among seven persons arrested on Friday for their alleged involvement in the embezzlement of over Rs300 crore from government's bank accounts.
A special investigation team (SIT) of the Economic Offences Unit (EOU) is probing the scam. Officials said public money kept in state government and district administration bank accounts had been diverted to the bank accounts of NGO Srijan and other bank accounts for private use in connivance with high level government and bank officials and the employees of Srijan, which was founded by one Manorma Devi and being run after her death by her son Amit Kumar and his wife Priya Kumari.
EOU IG JS Gangwar, who returned on Friday from Bhagalpur with relevant documents seized from banks, the DM's office and Srijan's premises, said besides Prem, nazirs Rakesh Yadav and Rakesh Jha, a clerk in Indian Bank, Ajay Pandey, Srijan's manager Sarita Jha, its computer operator Vanshidhar Jha and retired audit officer Satish Chandra Jha were arrested. Three FIRs had been lodged with Kotwali police station in Bhagalpur in this connection on Wednesday.

"Rakesh Yadav and Rakesh Jha, the nazir of district rural development agency (DRDA) and district land acquisition office, respectively, were arrested after their initial interrogation," the IG said and added that a laptop, a printer and several fake bank passbooks were seized from the possession of Vanshidhar.
Gangwar said Vanshidhar prepared forged bank account statements of the district administration for use as records in government documents to avoid the detection of the fraudulent withdrawals. He said the expertise of the fraudsters could be gauged from the fact that the accountant general conducted an audit two years back in the district and failed to detect any anomaly or discrepancy in the government bank accounts.

When asked, the IG said the scam had been going on at least since 2007. "Investigation has just started and the exact amount of embezzlement is yet to be ascertained," he said.
Sources said a special audit team of the finance department has been sent to Bhagalpur to calculate the total amount of money embezzled till now. A seven-member SIT was also sent to Bhagalpur on Friday for investigating the massive scam.
"The embezzlement amount might reach up to Rs500 crore as it had been going for over a decade," said a senior IPS officer, adding that the frauds had strong political and bureaucratic connections in Bihar and Jharkhand.

Stamp paper scam convict Abdul Kareem Telgi dead

Abdul Kareem Lala Telgi, 56, convicted in the Rs 32,000-crore counterfeit stamp paper scam, died in a Bengaluru hospital on Thursday . "He died of cardiac arrest in the ICU in the afternoon," confirmed authorities of Victoria Hospital, where he was brought from the Central Jail (Parappana Agrahara) on October 16 in a serious condition. He is survived by his wife and a married daughter.
"Telgi, whose condition was critical with multi-system failure, had a cardiac arrest on Thursday afternoon. In spite of all resuscitative measures, he could not be revived and was declared dead at 3.55pm," said an official release from the Trauma Care Centre at Victoria Hospital campus. " After completing legal formalities, the body will be handed over to family members by night or morning," hospital sources said.
Telgi, battling diabetes and AIDS, was suffering from metabolic encephalopathy , a neurological disorder that affects the brain. He was on antiretro viral therapy . He was put on ventilator with life support system. Telgi's barrack will be emptied soon, prison sources said. The barrack is located near the prison hospital and he had the room altered with court permission, they added.
"Keeping in mind his health issues, the court had permitted him to get food from out side. He also had a small stove and utensils inside his room," prison sources claimed, adding, "All the material inside his room will be shifted out."
Telgi, first arrested in Mumbai for trading in fake passports in 1992, made a beginning selling jackfruit and vegetables on trains running through Khanapur, his hometown in Karnataka. He later switched to fake stamp papers and his business spread across 18 states and 70 towns.


Telgi flooded the market with fake stamp papers, greasing the palms of officials and police officers across the country.An anonymous call to Upparpet police station in November 2000 led police to arrest a man selling fake stamp papers, who said Telgi was the supplier. He was arrested a year later from Ajmer, Rajasthan, but he continued to run his racket from within the Bengaluru prison.


Bengaluru: His was a crime spread across 18 states. The fake stamp paper scam that Abdul Kareem Telgi alias Kareem Lala masterminded, dealt the Indian economy a Rs 32,000-crore blow. He began by making fake passports and later foreign bills, brokers' notes, insurance policies, share transfer certificates and insurance agency stamps. Telgi was born in 1961 in Khanapur, Belagavi district, Karnataka.
After opening a travel agency in Dalal Street, Mumbai, he soon became the go-to man for fake documents, including stamps, stamp paper, IDs, and so on. He was arrested by Mumbai police in 1991 for selling fake visas. In jail, he met Ram Rathan Sony, who allegedly introduced him to stamp vending. Before long, Telgi's fake stamp papers were used in share transactions. At its peak, Telgi's operations had more than 350 agents who sold fake stamp papers to bulk buyers.

I-T department busts refund scam, 200 techies return tax amount

HIGHLIGHTS

  • The chargesheet revealed that at least 200 information technology employees faked disability and chronic illness of family members in order to fraudulently claim I-T refund
  • CCS sleuths found that two income tax practitioners processed the dubious I-T refund claims


A chargesheet filed by Hyderabad Central Crime Station sleuths in the city criminal court has revealed that at least 200 information technology employees, including from Polaris Hyderabad, faked disability and chronic illness of family members in order to fraudulently claim income tax refund.

CCS sleuths, who investigated the complaint filed by income tax department deputy director M Mohan Babu, found that two income tax practitioners processed the dubious I-T refund claims.
CCS police filed a chargesheet in the 12th additional chief metropolitan magistrate court at Nampally against two income tax practitioners N Srikanth Goud, 43, and Mohammed Khaleel, 34, both with offices at Venkateswara Colony in Dilshuknagar. CCS made the IT employees witnesses in the case as they repaid the amount they claimed after the income tax department served notices on them. In an ingenious method of making a quick buck, the two income tax practitioners N Srikanth Goud, 43, and Mohammed Khaleel, 34, set up their offices and got in touch with employees of software companies and offered to help them get I-T refund, said CCS assistant commissioner of police K Ram Kumar.

Explaining the modus operandi of the fraud, investigating officer Ram Kumar said, "Under Section 80 D and 80 DD of the Income Tax Act, refund can be claimed on medical grounds. The two accused approached IT employees and offered to process their claims to get tax refund by stating that their family members are patients of chronic illness. Each one of them got a rebate ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh. The accused took around 10 per cent commission from the IT employees. The total loss to the I-T department in these cases is Rs 1.36 crore. This is said to be only the tip of the iceberg. There could be several practitioners across the city and many employees resorting to this type of fraud.'' One of the accused, Srikanth Goud, is a law degree holder while Mohammed Khaleel is a commerce graduate. Police said the accused have been resorting to this type of cheating for the past five to six years.
"The chargesheet was filed four days ago. Out of the 200 employees, 50 are from Polaris,'' said Ram Kumar. The complaint was first filed on July 19, 2017. Charges were filed under section 420 IPC (cheating) and 406 IPC (criminal breach of trust) against the two practitioners. Repeated phone calls made to Polaris office in Hyderabad yielded no response.

Indian-origin men plead guilty in US call centre scam

Four Indian-origin men have pleaded guilty to charges of their involvement in a multi-million US dollar telephone impersonation fraud and money laundering scheme in the US perpetrated by India-based call centres.
Nisarg Patel, 26, of New Jersey, Dilip Kumar Ramanlal Patel, 30, of Florida and Rajesh Kumar, 39, of Arizona each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering offences. The pleas were entered before US district judge David Hittner of the Southern District of Texas.
All three have been in federal custody since they were arrested in October 2016.
In a related case, Dipak Kumar Sankalchand Patel, a resident of Pennsylvania, also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. He has been in federal custody since his arrest in May this year.
Nisarg, Dilip and Rajesh and 53 others, besides five India-based call centers have been charged for frauding American people through a money laundering scheme in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in the Southern District of Texas in October last year.
According to admissions made in connection with their pleas, the three men and their accomplices perpetrated a complex scheme in which people from from call centers located in Ahmedabad called people living in the US, posing as officials from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Using information obtained from data brokers and other sources, the accused targeted and threatened people in the US with arrest, imprisonment, fines or deportation if they did not pay money, which the accused alleged they owed to the US government.
Those who agreed to pay money to the scammers were instructed how to make the payment, including by purchasing stored value cards or wiring money. After the payment, the call centers would immediately turn to a network of "runners" based in the US to liquidate and launder the fraudulently obtained funds.
In connection with his guilty plea, Nisarg admitted that beginning in around June 2013 and continuing through December 2015, he acted as a domestic runner in the criminal scheme, liquidating victim funds for conspirators from India-based call centers and organisational co-defendant 'HGLOBAL'.
He communicated about the fraudulent scheme with various India-based co-defendants via telephone, email and WhatsApp text messaging.


Probe into call centre scam leads police to Ahmedabad


The state police have begun a joint operation along with counterparts in Gujarat into a multi-crore call centre racket operating from the city that was used to dupe citizens of the USA through online transactions.
"Our team has reached there and has begun the investigation with Ahmedabad Police, who were alerted to nab the culprits and back the investigation," said police sources, who also added that Mumbai Police have been alerted about developments in the case.

City police have busted two call centres involved in US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) scam in the last four days and arrested eight persons. Police have also seized over 50 computer hard disks from the two fake call centres which are being decoded by cyber experts. Police have found a list of names of 4,000 US citizens who are believed to have been victimized by the scam.
Police sources said an insider spilled the beans on the scam, and also supplied information that it was being run from Gujarat.

A city police official landed in Ahmedabad on Saturday in search for one Rajesh Bhai alias Rajesh Khan and his accomplices, whose names have surfaced in the investigation.
Preliminary investigation has found that the modus operandi for the fake call centres is identical to the infamous multi-crore IRS scam run by Shaggy alias Sagar Thakkar who was arrested by Mumbai Police earlier. Mumbai Police investigation had found that the IRS scam originated in Gujarat and Ahmedabad was the starting point of the crime, with call centres operating in tandem with the ones located in Mumbai. The fraudsters were well trained in American accents.
"The fraudsters were trained to detect soft targets, mostly aged tax evaders living in USA, and then they used to make fake calls to the targets impersonating officials from US revenue department asking to deposit funds to avoid legal actions. Many fell prey to the prank and deposited amounts ranging from $500 and more through bitcoin, a digital currency," an investigating official said.

Pearl scam

CBI today arrested Chairman-cum -Managing Director of Pearls Group Nirmal Singh Bhangoo and three other top officials in connection with Rs 45,000 crore alleged scam in which 5.5 crore investors were duped.

Bhangoo, CMD of PGF Limited and ex-Chairman of Pearls Australasia Pty Limited, along with Sukhdev Singh, MD and Promoter-Director of PACL, Gurmeet Singh, Executive Director (Finance) and Subrata Bhattacharya, ED in the PGF/PACL Ponzi Scheme Case, CBI Press Information Officer R K Gaur said.

Senior CBI officials said the four executives were arrested after detailed questioning today at agency headquarters.

The sources said during the questioning they were giving inconsistent statements and stopped cooperating which resulted in their arrest.

"The case involves alleged collection of Rs 45,000 crore from about 5.5 crore investors all over the country.

The case was registered under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of IPC," Gaur said. The investors were lured with the promise of huge returns.




Pearls Group chief arrested in connection with Rs 45,000 crore scam


CBI sources said arrests have been made in connection with the case against officials of Pearls Agrotech Corporation Ltd (PACL) and Pearls Golden Forest Ltd (PGF) for allegedly raising investments from over 5.5 crore investors through collective investment scheme under the garb of sale and development of agricultural land.

They said the agency's probe into the allegations has shown that investors were issued bogus land allotment letters.

In ponzi schemes, returns are given to investors from the money collected from other depositors in a pyramid-like structure.

CBI sources said that during the searches it had recovered documents which show benami properties worth crore in India and abroad.

It was revealed that PGF, on being directed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana to wind up the scheme and refund the money to the investors, a similar fraudulent scheme was operated under the name of PACL with office at Barakhamba Road in New Delhi, CBI had alleged in its FIR.

It is alleged that funds collected from new investors of PACL were used to repay the earlier investors of PGF to stave off criminal prosecution.

It alleged funds have been 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.

Pearls gave Rs 9,500 crore as agents' commission: CBI


 Pearls group chairman Nirmal Singh Bhangoo and accomplices cheated investors to the tune of Rs 45,000 crore through 23 lakh agents who received Rs 9,500 crore as commission to lure over five crore investors, CBI has alleged in its charge sheet filed today.

CBI sources said these agents, which included 1700 senior executives, worked in a multi-level marketing mode, received a commission of a whopping over Rs 9500 crore between 1996 and 2012 for allegedly luring the gullible investors to deposit in their schemes.

The charge sheet was filed here before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Charu Aggarwal who took cognisance of it and fixed the matter for scrutiny of documents on April 21.

The sources said agents worked in 11 level pyramid with those at top levels earning in lakhs as commission.

According to the sources, the companies -- PACL and PGF-- claimed investors would be given agricultural land in return of their deposits with the company. Once deposits were made, the company promised to provide investors with an allotment letter within 90 to 270 days.

The company allegedly provided these allotment letters to the investors with the condition that it reserved the right to change the location of the land allotted to them any time. The investors were allotted land in Medak in Andhra Pradesh and Ajmer and Bikaner in Rajasthan.

The sources, quoting from the charge sheet, said the companies allegedly kept allotting land which did not belong to them through the allotment letters issued to the investors. Large number of investors did not get their promised investment back.

The sources said Bhangoo through his executives, and relatives allegedly created front companies which entered in benami deals of properties. This was allegedly done to evade the sealing of land which can be held by a company or an individuals, they said.

They claimed the company also used the modus operandi to evade stamp duty.

CBI also informed the court that it is keeping the investigation open. The agency is looking into alleged dealings of Bhangoo in Australia in which his daughter and son-in-law are also under its scanner.

Dealings of Pearls group in property business in Australia which included a hotel in Gold Coast area and transactions in Dubai are being probed, the sources said.

CBI has not given details of property the documents of which were recovered by it during the searches as these are still under investigation.

The sources said the agency has managed to seize 20,000 documents related to properties whose purchase value was estimated at Rs 5,000 crore.

Bhangoo, CMD of Pearls Golden Forest Ltd (PGF) and ex-Chairman of Pearls Australasia Pty Limited, along with Sukhdev Singh, MD and Promoter-Director of Pearls Agrotech Corporation Ltd (PACL), Gurmeet Singh, Executive Director (Finance) and Subrata Bhattacharya, ED in the PGF/PACL were arrested by CBI in connection with the scam.

Ponzi scam: CBI unearths another 1841 acres


CBI unearthed another 1841 acres of land after questioning of Pearl group owner Nirmal Singh Bhangoo in connection with the Rs 45000 crore Ponzi scheme. The land was purchased by Bhangoo in different parts of Haryana including Gurgaon, Ambala and Karnal. Beside land, the sleuths also identified 44 commercial properties owned by Bhangoo and his associates.

The properties seized on Friday were said to be valued at Rs 92.50 crores. The agency has earlier seized 553 acre land worth several crores that were held by him using front companies. According CBI, Bhangoo wanted to develop 482 acres of this land under the new land pooling policy.

CBI also said the Chandigarh based businessman also purchased a farmhouse in Delhi worth Rs 100 crores from former Haryana minister Gopal Kanda who was also under the cloud for his alleged role in a suicide case of airhostess Geetika Sharma.

The agency also claimed to have seized the documents related to another 11.50 acre farmland owned by Bhangoo and his company in Rajokari area of Delhi.

Chit fund scams: Rs 80,000 crore and counting


Chit fund companies have duped thousands of gullible depositors of at least Rs 80,000 crore, according to estimates of CBI which is probing such cases across the country.

Agency sources said the amount is likely to be higher than the initial estimate as the probe is still on. These companies with operations across the country lured people by offering attractive interest rates and, in the case of Pearls Group, land.

Over Rs 30,000 crore has allegedly been collected from small investors by the chit fund companies operating in four eastern and northeastern states -- West Bengal, Assam, Odisha and Tripura, while Pearls Group which operates in Punjab and other north Indian states duped investors to the tune of Rs 51,000 crore, they said.

The deposits mobilised by the companies was allegedly used to purchase land, open media outlets, hotels and other businesses, denying depositors their dues.

The sources said the figure of Rs 80,000 crore is an estimate based on investigation so far and quantification of deposits collected from investors is still going on.

CBI has so far registered 76 cases, based on over 253 FIRs in these four states with 31 charge-sheets being filed by the agency in connection with the scam.

The agency has filed three cases against Rose Valley Group and seven against Saradha Group in connection with the fraud, called Saradha scam.

The sources said over six crore people have been duped by the companies across the country with majority of them allegedly being trapped by Pearls Group which has been operating for last 20 years before being busted by the agency.

The sheer sweep of the scam makes it one of the most difficult cases to be investigated by the agency in which several big operators including a former Union Minister, a state minister, an MP, a former journalist and politicians are being probed by it, they said. The agency said a lot of paper work is needed in probing economic offences like chit fund scam as flow of money is normally hidden in form of complex, layered data in files and computers.

The mining of data also requires forensic help, making it a time consuming process.

They said the agency suspects that such a big scam would not have been possible without some officials of regulators having ignored the operations of these companies. The agency has questioned officials of SEBI and RBI in this regard.

Recently, CBI Director Anil Sinha had said about the Pearls Group, which is the largest chit fund group being investigated for alleged malpractices, that "it needed the Supreme Court to step in and order investigations and later order return of money to the depositors under its supervision. Should not the regulator have suo motu stepped in proactively to protect the rights of 5.5 crore ordinary depositors."

The Supreme Court, while handing over the probe in the case to CBI, had said investigation conducted so far puts a question mark on the role of regulatory authorities like SEBI, Registrar of Companies and officials of RBI within whose respective jurisdictions and areas of operation the scam not only took birth but flourished unhindered.

Pearls scam: CBI to send Letters Rogatory to Australia


 CBI will soon send judicial request to Australia to seek details of Pearls Group's activities there as it suspects Rs 670 crore collected from public for developing land and forests has been diverted to that country.

Agency sources said Pearls Group Chief Nirmal Singh Bhangoo was allegedly running real estate business -- portable housing projects -- in the name of his relatives in Australia and also reportedly owned a hotel on Gold Coast.

The sources said the agency is probing business dealings of Bhangoo through which public money might have been diverted, including TV channel P7 News, a joint venture with Australian company Global Road Technologies (GRT) International and PHT LifeStyle.

GRT is based somewhere between Gold Coast and Brisbane and had entered into a joint venture with Pearls Group, which is facing probe here for allegedly duping over five crore investors to the tune of Rs 45,000 crore.

They said the alleged diversion of funds to Australia also took place through Global Road Technologies.

Directors of Pearls Group companies PACL and PGF allegedly collected funds from people in the garb of sale of land and forests to them and "deliberately and dishonestly diverted" funds to Australia without informing the investors, the sources said.

The agency will soon be sending Letters Rogatory to Australia seeking information about his business interests, companies suspected to be working with him, assets etc.

Letters Rogatory is a document issued by a court of a sovereign country to a court in another nation seeking legal assistance in probing a crime.

They said, if needed, LRs will also be sent to Dubai in this connection as it is investigating the diversion of some funds there.

During the probe in the last two years, CBI has found 1,300 bank accounts of the suspect company, its directors, and associated firms, they said, adding the agency has frozen assets (mostly Fixed Deposit receipts) to the tune of Rs 280 crore and an additional Rs 108 crore has been deposited with the Delhi High Court.

They said the agency has managed to seize 20,000 documents related to properties whose purchase value was estimated at Rs 5,000 crore.

Bhangoo, CMD of Pearls Golden Forest Ltd (PGF) and ex-Chairman of Pearls Australasia Pty Limited, along with Sukhdev Singh, MD and Promoter-Director of Pearls Agrotech Corporation Ltd (PACL), Gurmeet Singh, Executive Director (Finance) and Subrata Bhattacharya, ED in the PGF/PACL were arrested by CBI in connection with the scam.

ET Editor: We have received a communication from the Lawyers of Global Road Technologies Pty. Ltd.(GRT) stating that GRT is not associated and / or connected with the Pearls Group of Companies in any manner whatsoever. Furthermore, GRT is not a partner with the Pearls Group and has neither been a shareholder nor an investor in the Pearls Group. We wish our readers to read this article against this backdrop.

Can CBI probe all 76 FIRs related to Pearl scam, SC asks probe agency


The Supreme Court asked the CBI on Wednesday to examine whether it could investigate all 76 FIRs lodged against Nirmal Singh Bhangoo-headed Pearl group of companies in different states in connection with a Rs 45,000 crore land development scam.

One of the arrested directors of Pearl group had requested amalgamation of all the 76 FIRs registered. Appearing for him, senior advocate Anil Divan told a bench of Justice A R Dave and Justice A M Khanwilkar that his client was being taken into custodial remand by police in different states from time to time for investigation. "It would be better if the FIRs are amalgamated and its probe entrusted to one agency," he said.

CBI's counsel R Balasubramaniam said the agency was investigating only the case relating to Delhi. "Cases lodged by state police relate to cases of cheating committed by the group and its officials in those places. It would be a Herculean task for the CBI, in terms of both manpower and infrastructure, to take up investigations into all 76 cases," he said.

The bench said, "We are not suggesting amalgamation of the cases. As per our February 2 order, the CBI was to investigate the alleged fraud committed by the Pearl group. Let the CBI examine all 76 FIRs and give us a report by January 10 stating whether it would be possible for the agency to investigate all these cases."

The CBI said, "Different state police are conducting investigation into different FIRs against accused persons pertaining to localised conspiracies employed to cheat individual investors. As directed by the Supreme Court, the CBI, on the other hand, is investigating a conspiracy on a much larger canvas with broader ramification, including diversion of funds through sham land developments in India as well as in Australia, Dubai and other countries."

The apex court had earlier directed the CBI to hand over title deeds of land purchased by group companies to an SC-constituted committee. "In compliance of the order, the CBI has already handed over 26,680 title deeds and registration papers of 47 luxury cars to the committee, which were seized from PACLBSE -1.82 % Ltd," the agency said.

The CBI has arrested top officials of Pearl group including Bhangoo and Sukhdev Singh, Subrata Bhattacharya and Gurmeet Singh of PACL. They have been lodged in Tihar jail in judicial custody since February 23. Bhangoo and his companies promised investors that allotment of land would be done on their investment in 90 to 270 days and if not, handsome returns would be paid. In the allotment letters given to investors, the company specified that it reserved the right to change the site of allotment even though the company never owned any land in its name. 

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