Ponzi scam: PMLA court frames charges against 10

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Chandigarh, March 17

Special Judge, PMLA Court, Chandigarh, Jagjit Singh, has framed charges against 10 accused in the alleged ponzi scam of over Rs600 crore registered in 2012 by the Chandigarh Police.

The charges have been framed for having committed the offence under Section 3 punishable under Section 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

The accused include Kamal K Bakshi, Paras Nath Singh, Pankaj Singh, Rakesh Singh, Rita Singh, Arvind Singh and Yogendra Pratap Singh. Charges have also been framed against Gurnam Singh, former Deputy Director of the Enforcement Department. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed the chargesheet against the accused in 2017 against the directors of Unipay 2U Marketing Pvt Ltd and Uni gateway 2U Trading Pvt Ltd, both started by Malaysian nationals in India.

According to the chargesheet, a large number of investors were systematically lured and cheated of more than Rs600 crore by floating the pyramid scheme assuring high returns. More than 100 persons have been named as witnesses in this case.

The ED alleged that to win the confidence of early investors,the firms paid exorbitant returns. When thousands of people across the country invested crores in the ponzi schemes, the firms stopped payment or the monthly returns from October 2010 and gradually siphoned off crores paid by investors. The complainants alleged that they were allured by the directors of the company Unipay 2U Marketing Private Limited and their parent company situated in Malaysia for investment for profit. Initially, the names of the four directors were mentioned in the chargesheet but they were later declared proclaimed offenders. Later, the ED filed two supplementary chargesheets to which the names of the other accused were added.

Siddharth Pandit, counsel for the accused, claimed the accused were falsely implicated in the case. Sunil Narang, special public prosecutor of the ED, argued that there were sufficient proofs to frame charges against the accused.

The court framed the charges to which the accused pleaded not guilty and claimed a trial. The court has adjourned the case for June 1 for examination of the prosecution witnesses.