City Limouzine Investment finance fraud

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.