Director of Pearls Group detained by CBI after being deported from Fiji

According to sources, the CBI has detained Harchand Singh Gill, director of a Pearls Group subsidiary who was deported from Fiji in relation to a Rs 60,000 crore ponzi scheme that was allegedly carried out by the parent company. After Gill was expelled from the archipelago as part of "Operation Trishul," a team of CBI personnel travelled to Suva in Fiji to bring him back. Gill was arrested once they arrived.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) established the operation to bring back fugitives who were overseas and since it began last year, some thirty fugitives have been successfully returned to India. With Interpol's assistance, the operation tries to find and apprehend fugitives and the profits of crime.

According to the officials, Gill had an open-dated Non-Bailable Warrant of Arrest against him issued by a special court and was evading justice in the case. They claimed that the CBI had used Interpol to get a "Red Notice" declared on him. On February 19, 2014, the agency opened an inquiry into the Pearls Group and its founder Nirmal Singh Bhangoo on claims that they had defrauded naive investors out of Rs 5.5 crore by promising them land in exchange for their money.

The CBI claims that the business defrauded investors all around the country of over Rs 60,000 crore. The CBI claims that Gill served as a director and shareholder of PGF, a Pearls group firm and that gill attended board meetings at which all significant decisions were allegedly made.

According to a CBI spokeswoman, Gill reportedly plotted with other firm directors to run the collective investment programme without the necessary legal authorization. The spokeswoman claimed that both organisations were reportedly involved in fraudulent acts including forging as part of their routine business operations.

According to CBI, the agency's searches in February 2014 at director's homes, office buildings and other suspected locations in Delhi, Jaipur (Rajasthan), Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana resulted in the recovery of numerous records and data regarding public deposits and their misuse and fund diversion in addition to other incriminating documents.

Further investigations showed that the suspects fraudulently shifted monies purportedly received under the auspices of a private firm with a Jaipur address for alleged investments in Australian businesses. Furthermore, alleged was the diversion of about 132.99 million AUD to Australian businesses.

Almost all of the investors to whom the company had allotted the land were unpaid and that the investors had not received any land allotment letters from the company. Further, majority of the promised land was either non-existent, government land or land that had not been sold by the owner. More than 1,700 top level field associates were said to be among the more than 23 lakh enrolled commission agents, and some of these top-level commission agents were said to have received monthly commissions in the thousands of rupees.

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Director of Pearls Group detained by CBI after being deported from Fiji

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