Ex-Cong MLA booked for duping Pearls group MD of Rs 3.5 crore

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Advertisement

Ludhiana, June 24

The Ludhiana police have registered a case of fraud against former Congress MLA Pritam Singh Kotbhai and five others for duping Pearls group MD Nirmal Singh Bhangu. The accused had promised to arrange bail for Bhangu in all cases registered against him if he paid him Rs 5 crore.

Bhangu’s relative from Ludhiana had allegedly given Rs 3.5 crore to the ex-MLA on the directions of Bhangu and before the payment of remaining Rs 1.5 crore, the complainant came to know about the fraud.

In March 2022, Shinder Singh of Ludhiana lodged a complaint against Kotbhai and five others stating that his uncle Bhangu, who was in Tihar Jail and was later shifted to the Bathinda jail, met the former MLA, who was also lodged in the same jail in some chit fund scam cases.

Kotbhai told his uncle that he had many links in the government and he had several cases of chit funds in which he had already procured bail. He could also procure bail for him easily if he gave him Rs 5 crore. His uncle agreed to give Rs 3.5 crore in advance and promised to pay the remaining amount after bail.

“My uncle asked me to arrange money. Accordingly, I took Rs 3.5 crore from Girdhari Lal on interest and transferred the money to different firms’ accounts provided by Kotbhai in 2020. Despite transferring money, Kotbhai failed to procure bail for Bhangu. Even the firms, where I transferred money, were found to be created by the ex-MLA on the basis of fake documents,” said the complainant.

The firms allegedly created by Kotbhai to receive the amount, as alleged by the complainant, were Dhola Bricks, Lovepreet Constructions, Kisan Pesticides and Tirupati Trading Company.

Police Commissioner Mandeep Singh Sidhu said a case of fraud, forgery and criminal conspiracy was registered yesterday against Kotbhai, Jivan Singh of Giddarbaha village, Dalip Kumar Tripathi of Kanpur road, Lucknow, Sanjay Sharma of Faridabad and Sayeed Parvej Rehmai of Lucknow, and Dharamvir of Giddarbaha.

Accused Jivan, Dharmvir and Dalip have been arrested by the police and raids are on to nab the remaining accused, added the CP.

Both have criminal past

Nirmal Bhangu

Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, head of the Pearl Group of Companies and the main accused in the Rs 45,000 crore scam, had duped investors and was arrested in 2016 after being booked by the CBI.

Pritam Singh Kotbhai

Ex-MLA Pritam Singh Kotbhai has a criminal past. Kotbhai, who won the Assembly election in 2017 from Bathinda’s Bhucho Mandi constituency, had also been booked in several chit-fund scam cases, including in Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand, for duping people on the pretext of multiplying their investments.