LUCKNOW: In one of India’s largest financial frauds, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday arrested Gurnam Singh (69), the director of Pearls Agro-Tech Corporation Limited (PACL), from Ropar district in Punjab.Singh is accused of orchestrating a massive Ponzi-like scam, illegally collecting investments worth around Rs 49,000 crore from five crore unsuspecting investors across 10 states: Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar, and Chhattisgarh.Both the CBI and ED lodged cases against PACL. Following complaints and a SEBI probe, a case was registered at EOW police station, Kanpur (Case No. 1/18), invoking various IPC’s sections. Gurnam Singh was one of the ten named accused. Four others were already jailed in related CBI cases. The hunt continues for the remaining absconders.
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EOW said that the accused Gurnam was one of the main directors of the company appointed by the founder, Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, who died later. The company papers and documents reveal this fact.According to officials in EOW, the gang duped 50 lakh innocent people in different districts of Uttar Pradesh. Originally registered as Guruvant Agro-Tech Ltd with the Registrar of Companies in Jaipur on February 13, 1996, the company changed its name to PACL Ltd on October 25, 2011, with its corporate office at Barakhamba Road, New Delhi. Without obtaining mandatory registration as a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) under Section 45 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, the company allegedly conducted unauthorised banking activities.It opened multiple branches in Uttar Pradesh—particularly in Mahoba, Sultanpur, Farrukhabad, and Jalaun—where it aggressively promoted investment schemes. Investors were lured through promises of land plots and high returns in exchange for recurring and fixed deposits (RDs/FDs). Bond receipts were issued, but neither the plots nor returns were delivered, said EOW officials. Through deceptive real estate schemes promising land plots in return for recurring and fixed deposits (RDs and FDs), PACL collected over Rs 19,000 crore from the public in Uttar Pradesh alone, issuing bond receipts but delivering neither land nor returns, the EOW said.DG, EOW, Neera Rawat, said that the accused became a director in 1998 and the company is a classic Ponzi scheme. The PACL scam initially paid returns to earlier investors using the funds of new investors. “The promise of high returns attracted more people, and the company began operating as a pyramid scheme, encouraging everyone to recruit two others. Agents received significant commissions, leading them to bring in friends and family. The company organised numerous seminars to promote itself and lure more investors,” she said.Recently, the Directorate of Enforcement’s (ED) Delhi zonal office filed a supplementary prosecution complaint (SPC) against PACL company and others before the special PMLA court, New Delhi, in connection with the massive Rs 48,000 crore. ED’s investigation revealed that PACL diverted investor funds to various shell and associate companies, including M/s. MDB Housing Complex Pvt. Ltd., which was controlled by Harsatinder Pal Singh Hayer, the son-in-law of the late Bhangoo.The agency alleged that this diversion was an attempt to launder illicit proceeds by disguising them as legitimate business income. Hayer, who was arrested by the ED on March 21, is currently in judicial custody. Investigators identified that between 2011 and 2014, he purchased multiple immovable properties in Mumbai, Punjab, and Haryana using proceeds from the scam, the release said. Despite the known tainted origin of these funds, Hayer continued to possess, use, and present these properties as legally acquired assets, it added.The ScamThe PACL (Pearl Agrotech Corporation Limited) scam was executed by Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, a former milkman based in Punjab. This pyramid scheme promised investors substantial returns by allegedly using their money to purchase land. The company claimed that the land would be developed for agricultural and commercial purposes and sold at a significant profit, from which investors would receive high returns. However, instead of land ownership documents, investors received nothing more than receipts, which held no real value.Its FounderNirmal Singh Bhangoo was a resident of Barnala, Punjab. In his youth, he sold milk with his brother while pursuing a postgraduate degree in political science. During the 1970s, he moved to Kolkata for work and joined Pearls, a well-known investment firm. Later, he worked for Golden Forest India Limited, a company that also defrauded investors. After it shut down, Bhangoo was left unemployed, setting the stage for his future fraudulent ventures.Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday arrested Gurnam Singh, director of Pearls Agro-tech Corporation Ltd (PACL), from Ropar, in Punjab. Gurnam is accused of orchestrating one of India’s biggest financial frauds, worth nearly Rs 49,000 crore, by illegally collecting public deposits under the guise of land schemes without NBFC (non-banking financial company) registration. The company operated across 10 states, including UP, and duped five crore investors since 1998 through false promises of land plots and returns
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