Punjab VB constitutes 6-member SIT to investigate Pearl land scam

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 26

The Vigilance Bureau has set up a six-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the Pearl land scam. Two FIRs were registered earlier in Ferozepur and Mohali police districts in connection with the scam. The state government had last week handed over the investigation from the Punjab Police to the VB.

VB Joint Director Kanwaldeep Singh will head the six-member team. The other members are AIG Daljeet Singh Rana, DSP Salam-ud-Din, DSP Navdeep Singh, Inspector Mohit Dhawan and Inspector Madhavi Kalyan. Sources said six members were required to probe the scam in two districts and documents would need to be heavily scrutinised. Besides, the team members would also have to go on field visits.

Justifying the transfer of the case to the VB, the government order stated, “The Punjab Vigilance Bureau is an independent and specialised agency which has a dedicated Economic Offences Wing (EOW) for investigation of complex economic offences. Considering the specialised nature of investigations needed in the Pearl scam, and, its inter-state ramifications, the investigations have been transferred to the Vigilance Bureau so that they can be conducted in a fair and transparent manner to unravel the entire Pearl scam.”

“No person involved in the scam shall be spared and all available evidence would be brought on record. Efforts would be made by Vigilance Bureau, in coordination with the Lodha Committee set up by the Supreme Court of India to return the investments of the maximum numbers of duped investors,” the order further read.

CM Bhagwant Mann had recently said the government was considering a new strategy to handle the Pearl scam so that the money of the duped investors could be recovered.

The FIRs registered in Ferozepur and Mohali stated that the accused in the Pearl chit fund scam had disposed of assets worth Rs 1,200 crore in an illegal manner. The police had registered an FIR against Pearl Group owner Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, his relatives and officials of the company under Sections 406, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the IPC.

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