Vigilance Bureau Arrests Dharmendra Singh Sandhu, Former Director Of PACL Ltd
Another illegally appointed Director Sandeep Mahal and CA Jaswinder Dang already charge-sheeted in this case
Chandigarh: Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Tuesday arrested Dharmendra Singh Sandhu, one of the illegally appointed Directors of the PACL Ltd., in connection with Pearls Agrotech Corporation Limited (PACL Ltd.) scam, in which around five crore gullible investors were defrauded of around Rs 50,000 crores by the company.
Disclosing this here today, an official spokesperson of the VB said that the absconding accused Dharmendra Singh Sandhu, resident of Rama Mandi, Jalandhar, has been arrested in FIR No. 01 dated 21-02-2023 registered under sections 406, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 384 and 120B of IPC at State Crime Police Station, SAS Nagar, Punjab.
He further informed that an Extraordinary General Body Meeting (EoGM) of PACL Ltd. was shown to have been held on 01-01-2022 at Ms PACL Limited’s registered office in Jaipur (Rajasthan), which had been lying closed for past 7-8 years, and also appointed three new directors namely Hirdaypal Singh Dhillon, Sandeep Singh Mahal and Dharmendra Singh Sandhu on the basis of forged proceedings of EoGM, which never took place. They had submitted the forged documents to the Registrar of Companies, Jaipur, through Chartered Accountant (CA) Jaswinder Singh Dang of Ludhiana and got their names reflected as Directors of PACL Ltd on the website of Ministry of Company Affairs (MCA). Notably, Sandeep Singh Mahal and CA Jaswinder Singh Dang have already been charge-sheeted in this case and are in judicial custody, he added.
Divulging further, the spokesperson informed that these three unlawfully appointed Directors issued notices under the signatures of Sandeep Singh Mahal to different persons holding/possessing assets of the PACL Ltd. without taking permission from the Committee constituted by Supreme Court of India under the Chairmanship of Justice (Retd.) R.M. Lodha, and started extorting money from them.
Recently, the Ministry of Company Affairs (MCA) has removed the names of Hirdaypal Singh Dhillon, Sandeep Singh Mahal and Dharmendra Singh Sandhu from the list of Directors of PACL Ltd.
Pertinently, a Committee under the chairmanship of Justice (Retd) R.M. Lodha has been constituted pursuant to the order of Supreme Court of India to sell the properties of PACL Ltd. and use the sale proceeds to refund the investors who have invested their hard earned money in the collective investment scheme (CIS) offered by the Company.