The Central Crime Branch (CCB) police conducted simultaneous raids at the offices of Pearls Agrotech Corporation Limited (PACL) in City and Delhi a few days ago and seized crucial documents relating to a multi-crore land scam.
The PACL management is accused of cheating the public by collecting huge sums for sites and not fulfilling the promise.
Pearl Agro Limited is a Rajasthan-based firm and changed its name as Pearls Agrotech Corporation Limited in 2011. The PACL has over hundred branches all over the country. The PACL management collected huge sums from the public assuring to form layouts and distribute sites. The management also promised to pay the double amount if it failed to distribute sites within five years, but never fulfilled the promise.
A complaint was lodged with Rajagopalnagar police in Bengaluru in 2013 against the PACL. It was alleged that the PACL collected huge sums from the public to form layouts and distribute sites, but the layouts were never formed and sites were never distributed. The case was handed over to the CCB for investigation as it was a multi-crore scam. The PACL management moved the High Court and obtained a stay against the investigation, joint commissioner of police (Crime) M Chandrasekhar told Deccan Herald.
The CCB police requested the High Court to grant permission to continue the investigation as it was a multi-crore case and one of the biggest scams. The court granted the permission in March by vacating the stay, allowing the CCB to carryout the investigation, he said.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court had directed the police to conduct the investigation as several other cheating complaints were lodged in different parts of the State. The CCB police obtained search warrant from the court and raided the PACL offices, said the police.
A CCB team was sent to Delhi on September 21 for the raid. The PACL head office at Gokul Das building on Barakhamba Road in Delhi and its branch office on Cunningham Road in the City were raided by separate teams. The police seized a large number of files and other documents.
“The preliminary scrutiny of the documents pointed out to the cheating of about Rs 103 crore. The amount might go up and the exact figures would be available after a thorough verification of all the documents,” said a senior police officer.
The management had told a few customers that the layout was ready, but not fully fit for occupation. The management had also promised them that it would use a part of the money collected to develop the layout and the customers would receive the sites and ownership documents once the sites were ready for occupation. However, the management never fulfilled the promise and did not return the money, said the police.
Published 24 September 2015, 21:11 IST