To compensate the people, the Punjab Government has started the process of confiscating the land owned by Pearl Group to further sell it.

Announcing this, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday declared that the State Government will recover every single penny plundered from the people of the State. “The properties of the Pearl Group have already been identified in various districts and a legal process has been initiated to acquire these properties. Red Entries have been made in the Revenue records so that no one is able to sell or purchase this property,” said Mann.

The Chief Minister said that the Group had done a huge fraud with the people of the State for which it will be made accountable.

He said that the revenue records have already been checked at the grass root level to ensure complete transparency in the process. “Topmost priority has been accorded to this work so that this property is confiscated by the Government,” he said.

The Chief Minister said that he has directed the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police to personally supervise this work for its smooth execution in a time-bound manner.

“This property will be sold and every penny of the public will be returned back to them. The State Government is committed to ensure that the money of people is returned to them and the exemplary action against the company will act as a deterrent for other fraudster companies,” he added.

The development came about four months after the Chief Minister had directed the Deputy Commissioners to identify all the properties of the Pearl Group in their respective districts to initiate the process of making red entries. Directions, to compile a state-level list in consonance with the directions of the Supreme Court and Justice Lodha committee, were also issued.

The State Government, the previous month, had handed over an investigation into the scam by the Pearl group to the state Vigilance Bureau. At that time, the Government had said that efforts would be made by the Bureau, in coordination with the Justice Lodha Committee set up by the Supreme Court, to return the investments of the maximum number of duped investors.

The Vigilance, in May, set up a six-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the Pearl land scam, headed by the VB joint director Kanwaldeep Singh. The SIT is probing two FIRs registered in Ferozepur and Mohali police districts in connection with the scam.

Justifying the transfer of the case to the VB, the government order had read, “The Punjab Vigilance Bureau is an independent and specialized agency which has a dedicated Economic Offences Wing (EOW) for investigation of complex economic offenses. Considering the specialized nature of investigations needed in the Pearl scam, and, its inter-state ramifications, the investigations have been transferred to the Vigilance Bureau so that they can be conducted in a fair and transparent manner to unravel the entire Pearl scam.”

“No person involved in the scam shall be spared and all available evidence would be brought on record. Efforts would be made by Vigilance Bureau, in coordination with the Lodha Committee set up by the Supreme Court of India to return the investments of the maximum numbers of duped investors,” the order further read.

The FIRs registered in Ferozepur and Mohali stated that the accused in the Pearl chit fund scam had disposed of assets worth Rs 1,200 crore in an illegal manner. The police had registered an FIR against Pearl Group owner Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, his relatives and officials of the company under Sections 406, 420, 467, 468, 471 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).