Pearls Group CMD Nirmal Singh Bhangoo and three others, arrested in connection with alleged swindling of Rs 45,000 crore from over five crore investors, were today sent to four-day CBI custody by a Delhi court which said it was prima facie established that crime was committed.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sugandha Aggarwal allowed CBI's plea for extending police custody of the four accused by four more days saying "investigation is to be thoroughly done to ascertain the crime and also to identify all the persons and collect relevant evidence".
Accused Bhangoo, CMD of Pearls Golden Forest Ltd (PGF) and ex-Chairman of Pearls Australasia Pty Limited, Sukhdev Singh, MD and Promoter-Director of Pearls Agrotech Corporation Ltd (PACL),Gurmeet Singh, Executive Director (Finance) and Subrata Bhattacharya, ED in the PGF/PACL were produced before the court after expiry of their 10-day CBI custody.
"From the facts and investigation till now, prima facie it is established that crime has been committed. In fact in the present case FIR was registered by the orders of the Supreme Court. The IO is duty bound to carry out the orders of Supreme Court deligently and conduct thorough investigation," it said.
During the arguments, CBI prosecutor Naveen Kumar said numerous properties have to be recovered and criminal proceeds which the accused have allegedly earned by playing fraud with the public was also to be ascertained.
He said during the interrogation, accused have intimated that other persons were also involved in the conspiracy and there were properties worth thousands of crore which are to be identified and located.
"All these properties and criminal proceeds and documents relating to the same will establish the crime committed by the accused," the prosecutor said while seeking police custody.
The police custody plea, however, was opposed by advocates Vijay Aggarwal and Manish Jain, appearing for Bhangoo, saying sufficient time has already been given to the investigating officer (IO) to unearth the conspiracy and alleged that legal principles have not been followed by CBI during the probe.
The accused were arrested on January 8, after two years of CBI probe ordered by the Supreme Court in the country's largest reported ponzi scam.
During the probe in the last two years, CBI has said it has found 1300 bank accounts of the suspect company, their directors and associated firms.
