ED arrests Nirmal Singh Bhangoo's son-in-law in PACL case

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday said it has arrested the son-in-law of late PACL promoter Nirmal Singh Bhangoo as part of a money laundering investigation linked to an alleged Rs 48,000 crore Ponzi scheme in which numerous investors were duped.

Bhangoo's son-in-law Harsatinder Pal Singh Hayer was taken into custody on Friday. A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court sent him to the ED custody, the federal probe agency said in a statement.

The money laundering investigation of 2015 stems from a CBI FIR against against PACL India Limited, PGF Limited, Bhangoo and others for operating "fraudulent" investment schemes to deceive the investors.

Through these schemes, PACL and its directors "defrauded" the investors for about Rs 48,000 crore, as per the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

Hayer, it said, was a director in several associate companies of PACL Limited, including two Australian entities -- Pearls Australasia Pty Ltd and Australasia Mirage I-Pty Ltd.

PACL and its associates diverted Rs 657.18 crore of "proceeds of crime" to these Australian entities "controlled" by Hayer, the ED alleged.

These funds were then "invested" by the Australian companies in various real estate properties in Australia. Hayer was also "dissipating" the properties of PACL and its related entities "in violation" of a Supreme Court order of July 25, 2016, it said.

The ED has attached assets worth Rs 706 crore, including Rs 462 crore worth two immovable properties in Australia, and has filed two chargesheets against PACL, Bhangoo and others.

"These asset details have been shared with the Justice Lodha Committee, appointed by the Supreme Court, for overseeing the process of property disposal and restituting the money to investors," the ED said.

Bhangoo died in August last year.