Punjab Vigilance arrests Pearls Agrotech director Dharmendra Singh Sandhu

Chandigarh, September 5

The Vigilance Bureau (VB) on Tuesday arrested Dharmendra Singh Sandhu, one of the directors, in connection with Pearls Agrotech Corporation Limited (PACL) scam, in which around five crore investors were defrauded of around Rs 50,000 crore.

A VB spokesperson said Sandhu, a resident of Rama Mandi, was arrested under Sections 406, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 384 and 120B of the Indian Penal Code.

He said an extraordinary general body meeting (EoGM) of the PACL was shown to have been held on January 1, 2022, at the firm’s registered office in Jaipur (Rajasthan), which had been lying closed for past seven-eight years. Members at the meeting appointed three new directors namely Hirdaypal Singh Dhillon, Sandeep Singh Mahal and Dharmendra Singh Sandhu on the basis of forged proceedings of the EoGM, which never took place.

An investigation found out that they had submitted forged documents to the Registrar of Companies, Jaipur, through chartered accountant Jaswinder Singh Dang of Ludhiana and got their names reflected as directors of the PACL on the website of Ministry of Company Affairs. Mahal and Dang have already been chargesheeted in the case, he added.

The spokesperson said these three unlawfully appointed directors issued notices to different persons holding/possessing assets of the PACL without taking permission from the committee constituted by Supreme Court under the chairmanship of Justice (retd) RM Lodha, and started extorting money from them.

Recently, the Ministry of Company Affairs removed the names of Dhillon, Mahal and Sandhu from the list of PACL directors.

Rs 50K crore fraud

• Dharmendra Singh Sandhu is one of the directors of Pearls Agrotech Corporation Limited
• The PACL duped around five crore investors of around Rs 50,000 crore