E-Paper
Six-year-old ₹400 crore investment scam’s record transferred to ED
The multi-crore investment scam was unearthed in July 2016. A first information report (FIR) was registered at the Chheharta police station on the complaint of several victims.
The commissionerate police have handed over the record of the ₹400 crore scam case, including its investigation conducted by Punjab Human Rights Organization (PHRO) pointing the involvement of two former MLAs and other political leaders, to the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The multi-crore investment scam was unearthed in July 2016 when a first information report (FIR) was registered at the Chheharta police station on the complaint of the victims who had lost their hard-earned money to the fraudsters. One more case was registered in this regard in November 2016 on the basis of the investigation conducted by PHRO, which had found that more than 15000 people were duped on pretext of various term and fixed deposit schemes by several companies.
The PHRO, which had been ‘unsatisfied’ with the investigation of Punjab Police, had written to the state chief minister’s office for transferring the case’s record to the ED in 2021. PHRO’s principal investigator Sarabjit Singh Verka said, “After our request to the CM office, Punjab DGP had directed the Amritsar police commissioner to take necessary action. The commissioner had submitted his report to the DGP in May this year after taking legal advice. Finally, the Amritsar police have sent the case’s details to the ED.” Chheharta station house officer (SHO) Sarabjit Singh confirmed that the record of the case was transferred to the ED last week.
The PHRO in its 3579 pages long investigation report had found that some ‘influential’ persons with political backing had floated several fake investment companies, including RK Investment Private Limited, Dara Future Vision Private Limited, Gobind Future Vision Private Limited, Navratan Gold Private Limited and Navratan Real Estate Private Limited, without having licenses. The owners of these companies had allegedly duped “ ₹400 crore from more than 15000 people on pretext of term and fixed deposit schemes”. Later on, the companies were ‘dissolved’ and the accumulated money was invested in ‘properties, illegal colonies, and in four Punjab films’.
The investigation had also pointed to the ‘involvement’ of two former MLAs of two main political parties—Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Congress—in the state. “A then SAD councillor who was a close associate of the then party MLA was found to be the kingpin of the racket in our probe. He was not arrested because his party was in power. Later on, when Congress formed the government, he shifted his loyalty towards a Congress MLA. The Amritsar police had arrested a few other owners of the private companies, but they were released on bail after sometime. Some of them were declared proclaimed offenders,” Verka said. He further alleged, “The city police tried to Hotch-potch the case due to the political pressure, forcing us to demand the transferring of the case to the ED. The city police had confined the scam’s amount to only ₹2 crore. In our investigation report, we had provided evidence that the scam’s amount was ₹400 crore.” Both the cases are under trial. Amritsar city police had presented the challan pertaining to the July 2016 case in a local court in 2018, besides submitting a supplementary challan in March 2022. Similarly, the challan pertaining to the November 2016 case was submitted in September 2018.
