Pearls probe: CBI to share all info with Supreme Court panel

The CBI is set to share all details gathered by it in its probe pertaining to the immovable assets and cash deposits of the Pearls group firms, which are accused of duping 5.5 crore investors, with a Supreme Court-appointed special committee. The committee, sources said, would ensure sale of immovable properties as well as liquidation of fixed deposits of the group companies at the earliest possible time for making refunds to investors.

Sources said, “The committee will be assisted by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the CBI, and both the agencies will soon furnish all the details regarding the properties and cash seized by them during the course of the investigation.”

The SC has already directed Sebi and CBI to hand over all the requisite documents to the committee for verification and assessment of the value of such properties which would go up for sale, they added.

The CBI recently recovered documents pertaining to the properties allegedly owned by Pearls group as part of its investigations into the '45,000-crore Ponzi scam. Properties owned by the group include two posh hotels in Goa, three business complexes in Delhi, 800 acres of land in Karnataka and 50 commercial properties in Bathinda, Amritsar and Mohali. It is suspected that the accused firms allegedly raised investments worth '45,000 crore from over 5.6 crore gullible investors through collective investment scheme under the garb of sale and development of agricultural land.

The CBI arrested Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, chief of the Pearls group, on January 9 this year. Apart from this, Bhangoo allegedly admitted to have purchased 66 commercial properties in Connaught Place, considered to be one of the prime business addresses.