Pearls Group CMD Nirmal Singh Bhangoo and three others, arrested in connection with alleged swindling of Rs 45,000 crore from over five crore investors, were on Saturday sent to 14-day judicial custody by a Delhi court.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sugandha Aggarwal sent the accused in judicial custody till February 6 after CBI said it does not want their further custodial interrogation.
“Today (Saturday) accused persons have been produced in court after 14-day police custody remand. Now, an application has been moved seeking 14-day judicial custody. For the reasons stated in the application, the same is allowed,” the court said.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Police also moved the court seeking Bhangoo’s custody in another case and the plea has been kept for hearing on January 25.
Apart from Bhangoo, CMD of Pearls Golden Forest Ltd (PGF) and ex-Chairman of Pearls Australasia Pty Limited, Sukhdev Singh, MD and Promoter-Director of Pearls Agrotech Corporation Ltd (PACL), Gurmeet Singh, Executive Director (Finance) and Subrata Bhattacharya, ED in the PGF/PACL were arrested by CBI.
During the hearing, advocates Manish Jain and Vijay Aggarwal told the court that Bhangoo has recently undergone kidney transplant and he be checked regularly in jail.
To this, the court directed that jail authorities shall give proper care and medication to Bhangoo.
The accused were arrested on January 8, after two years of CBI probe ordered by the Supreme Court in the country’s largest reported ponzi scam. The accused were arrested under charges of criminal conspiracy and cheating. During the probe in the last two years, CBI has said it has found 1,300 bank accounts of the suspect company, their directors and associated firms.