Former judge, son held for duping investors of Rs10 cr

Gagandeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, January 7

The police arrested former special judicial magistrate HL Kumar and his son, advocate Pardeep Kumar, from New Delhi last night for allegedly duping chit-fund investors of Rs 10.3 crore.

Both were today produced in the court of duty magistrate Rajwinder Kaur. They were remanded in three-day custody.

HL Kumar served as a special magistrate in the local court a few years ago after retirement from the PCS. The duo was booked under Sections 420 and 34 of the IPC and Sections 4 and 5 of the Prize Chits and Money Circulations Scheme (Banning) Act on the complaint of Gursewak Singh, a resident of Bhucho Khurd.

Several investors were present today when the father-son duo was produced in the court. Gursewak had lodged a complaint with the SSP’s office two years ago against six persons, including the Kumars, alleging that they had defrauded investors of over Rs 10 crore.

Swapan Sharma, then SSP, marked an inquiry to SP (Headquarters) Nanak Singh. After the probe, a case was registered against HL Kumar, Pardeep Kumar, Sherry, Ajay Maheshwari, Sandeep Singh Maan and Vishal Sharma.

According to the complainant, the accused had formed Perfect Trading chit fund company and collected crores from clients by offering higher interest of rate compared to the banks. They also gave cheques to the clients.

Gursewak alleged that when people demanded their money back, the accused refused to do so and threatened the investors, besides shutting down their office.

According to investors, the company had offices in New Delhi and Bathinda, where Pardeep used to meet them. Most of them invested money following surety by HL Kumar, said Bhupinder Singh, an investor.

Kuldeep Singh Bhullar, SHO, Civil Lines, said the police had started an investigation. He added that the names of Sherry and Maan had been removed from the FIR, while Sharma and Maheshwari were on the run.