Nirmal Singh Bhanghu, owner of Pearl Group and mastermind of 45 thousand crore scam, hailing from Punjab, died in Delhi on Sunday night. He was arrested by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in January 2016. Since then he was lodged in Tihar Jail, Delhi. On Sunday night, when his health deteriorated, he was brought to Delhi's DDU Hospital. At 7.50 pm, doctors declared him dead. Bhanghu was accused of amassing an empire of crores through Ponzi schemes. Bhanghu collected thousands of crores of rupees by trapping more than 5 crore people in such schemes and invested it abroad. When the investigation started, CBI arrested Nirmal Singh in January 2016. After this, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) also investigated. Pearls Group owner Nirmal Singh Bhanghu was a resident of Barnala district of Punjab. It is said that in his youth, he used to sell milk with his brother on a bicycle. During this time, he also did post graduation in Political Science. Opened his own company in 1980 In the 70s, Bhangu went to Kolkata in search of a job. Where he worked for a few years in a famous investment company Pearls. After that, he started working in Golden Forest India Limited, a Haryana-based company that duped investors of crores of rupees. After this company closed, he became unemployed. With the idea of working in this company, he formed a company named Pearls Golden Forest (PGF) in 1980. On the lines of Golden Forest India Limited, this company also made people invest in plantations of trees like teak and promised to return good profits after some time. By 1996, the company collected crores of rupees. The company was closed due to income tax and other investigations. Built his empire abroad After this, he started a new company Pearls Agrotech Corporation Limited (PACL) from Barnala, Punjab. This was a chain system scheme. More than five crore people invested money in it, lured by the claims and promises of huge profits given by the company. Under this, people were made to deposit a small amount every month. With the small amounts collected from people, he built the empire of Pearls Group not only in the country but also abroad. Bhanghu invested crores of rupees in many different types of businesses. When the investors were not returned their money as promised, people started filing complaints against the company. After this, the matter reached the CBI. What did the CBI investigation reveal… According to the CBI investigation, the companies that cheated people were identified as Pearls Infrastructure Projects Limited, ARSS Infrastructure Projects Limited and Jain Infra Projects Limited. Schemes were launched by Nirmal Bhanghu's companies to convince people to invest on the false promise of high returns. The funds collected from 5.50 crore investors from various states were misused. Investors were given false land allotment letters. Most of the land in and around Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh either did not exist, was government property or was not sold by their real owners. More than 23 lakh commission agents were involved and more than 1700 of them were senior level field officers. They were paid monthly commission of lakhs of rupees for bringing investors. On the instructions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the accused later closed one scheme, but started another scheme in the name of a different company to collect the funds used to pay the previous investors. A significant part was also diverted using shell entities and about 132.99 million Australian dollars were invested in Australian companies. CM Mann started seizing the property In May 2023, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had promised to return the money of the investors by seizing the property of Pearl Group. After which the Punjab government also started the legal process of seizing the property. Wife was arrested last year Punjab Vigilance Bureau also arrested Prem Kaur, wife of Nirmal Singh Bhanghu in September 2023. Prem Kaur was accused of seizing the properties of Pearl Group and violating the orders of the Supreme Court in this case. Prem Kaur was nominated to sell the properties and transfer them to a close relative.
Graphics Source: VaskarAssets
Trending Now
Copyright @Frontpage Insights | Designed & Developed By RankMagus