Court directs CBI to supply docs to Pearls Group CMD, others

A Delhi court on Thursday directed CBI to supply complete documents along with the charge sheet to Pearls Group CMD Nirmal Singh Bhangoo and five others, who were arrested in connection with alleged swindling of Rs 45,000 crore from over five crore investors.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Charu Aggarwal asked the CBI investigating officer to give all deficient documents annexed with the chargesheet to the accused, who told the court that they have not received the complete set. The court fixed May 9 for completing the process of scrutiny of documents in the case. Advocate Manish Jain and Vijay Aggarwal, who appeared for Bhangoo, moved an application under Section 207 of the CrPC seeking copies of the documents.

The court had earlier taken cognisance on the charge sheet filed in the case on April 7.

The charge sheet was filed against Bhangoo, his firms Pearl Agrotech Corporation Ltd (PACL), Pearls Golden Forest Ltd (PGF), and its promoters and directors Sukhdev Singh, Gurmeet Singh and Subrata Bhattacharya under various sections of the IPC and the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978.

CBI has charged the accused for various alleged offences including criminal conspiracy, dishonestly receiving stolen property, cheating and forgery under the IPC and under sections 4 and 5 of the Prize Chits and Money Circulation Schemes (Banning) Act, 1978.