On Thursday, the Vigilance Bureau (VB) arrested a close associate of Pearls Group owner Nirmal Singh Bhangoo in Ferozepur. The Pearls Group has allegedly defrauded over 5 crore people nationwide, including thousands of investors from Punjab, by falsely promoting various investment schemes.
The arrested individual, Vikram Singh from Fazilka, along with his cousin Rajinder Kumar, is accused of acquiring land in Fazilka district for Pearls Golden Forest Limited. The transaction involved 8 kanals and 8 marlas of land in Ram Nagar, recorded under deed No. 583 on May 10, 2010.
According to a VB spokesperson, Vikramdeep, allegedly aided by his father Satnam Dass, manipulated land records in collusion with revenue department officials, including patwari Wazir Singh, kanungo Paramjit Singh, and tehsildar Amarjit Singh. They inflated the land price and misrepresented the area, securing mutations for 78 kanals and 8 marlas, which enabled Vikram to obtain a loan of Rs9.90 lakh. Meanwhile, Rajinder Kumar secured a loan of Rs8 lakh.
Vikram was presented in a Zira court on Friday and has been remanded to judicial custody, as confirmed by his counsel Mehar Singh Mal. Satnam Dass, Rajinder Kumar, and patwari Wazir Singh are already in custody.
In February 2023, the Punjab government transferred the investigation into the Pearls Group chit-fund scam to the Vigilance Bureau. The VB is currently probing two FIRs related to the scam—one registered in Ferozepur in 2020 and another at the state crime police station in Mohali in 2023.
In 2016, the Supreme Court appointed a committee headed by former Chief Justice RM Lodha to oversee the sale of the group’s properties. By 2017, the committee reported that the group’s total liabilities amounted to Rs80,000 crore, while its properties were valued at only Rs7,600.crore .