Pearl Agro case: Over 36 lakh investors get ₹3.8k-cr in refunds

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) detected that PACL was running the investment schemes without complying with regulations

The Haryana government on Monday said that more than 36 lakh investors in the Pearl Agro Corporation Limited (PACL) case have been refunded a total of ₹3,864 crore. PACL case is an alleged investment fraud case involving lakhs of investors where money was collected through real estate schemes and high returns were promised.

SEBI detected that the corporation was running the investment schemes without complying with regulations. (HT File)

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) detected that PACL was running the investment schemes without complying with regulations.

The matter came up at state level coordination committee (SLCC) convened by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) where action taken on issues discussed during the previous SLCC meeting was reviewed and matters relating to alleged financial fraud, unauthorised deposit collection, complaints received through the SACHET Portal, market intelligence inputs and recent initiatives for creating greater financial awareness among citizens were examined, an official spokesperson said,

Haryana chief secretary Anurag Rastogi presided over the 16th SLCC meeting to review the state of financial frauds, investor protection measures, emerging cyber threats and technology-based initiatives aimed at strengthening financial sector security in the state.

Vivek Srivastava, regional director, RBI, said a new version SACHET portal, a key platform dealing with market intelligence and complaints relating to unregulated financial activities was launched on June 25, 2026, with a modernised user interface and workflow.

The upgraded SACHET Portal is now available in 13 national languages, expanding its accessibility to a larger section of the population. It has also been equipped with improved accessibility features for differently abled persons. To further assist complainants, a tutorial video demonstrating the process of filing a complaint on the portal has also been introduced. The committee also reviewed the status of complaints received from Haryana through the portal.

The spokesperson said the committee also discussed market intelligence on new and emerging forms of financial fraud reported in the state of Haryana. Among the issues highlighted were cyber frauds involving online gaming, where fraudsters lure young users with fake in-game rewards and, in some cases, exploit payment accounts linked to parental bank accounts for unauthorised transactions.

The discussions underlined the changing nature of financial fraud and the importance of awareness, intelligence-sharing and coordinated institutional response in dealing with cyber-enabled crimes.

The spokesperson said that MuleHunter.ai, an artificial intelligence and machine learning-based solution developed by the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) for the detection of mule accounts has been successfully deployed across 31 major banks. The RBI informed the committee that more than 25,000 financial literacy programmes have been conducted across Haryana, as part of efforts to increase awareness about financial services, safe banking and protection against financial fraud.