• Rs 60,000-crore scam: 11 arrested by CBI in Pearls Group chit fund fraud case

    Business
    Rs 60,000-crore scam: 11 arrested by CBI in Pearls Group chit fund fraud case

    New Delhi: The Central investigating agency, CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) today arrested 11 people in connection with a Rs 60,000-crore Pearls Group chit fund fraud case.





    The amount was collected from over five crore investors over a period of time by the Pearls Group.





    The group had collected the amount illegally, by operating the chit fund scheme without any statutory approval to dupe credulous investors. The Pearls Group has been operating multiple investment schemes across the country.





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    After an inquiry initiated against the scammers, a case was registered against PACL Limited, Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, PGF Limited and directors of these two flagship companied of the Pearls Group.





    CBI arrested a total of 11 persons of Pearls Group executives for their alleged role in the scam – Kanwaljit Singh Toor, Manmohan Kamal Mahajan, Chander Bhushan Dhillon, Prem Seth and Mohanlal Sehajpal.





    The investigating officials also arrested six businessmen – Rajesh Agarwal, Praveen Kumar Agarwal, Subhash Agarwal, Manoj Kumar Jain, Anil Kumar Khemka and Akash Agarwal.





    The CBI conducted their raid across Delhi, Chandigarh, Kolkata and Bhubaneswar and arrested the businessmen.





    Earlier, four persons were arrested on January 8, 2016. The arrested persons are Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, Gurmeet Singh, Sukhdev Singh and Subrata Bhattacharya. A chargesheet was filed against the accused on April 7, 2016.





    The investigation on the multi-crore chit fund scam will continue further as more people are suspected to be involved in duping people in the name of frivolous schemes. Crores of investors have faced crores of loss after being cheated of their hard earned money.