The Guntur Police conducted a raid on the branch office of PACL (Pearls) India Limited at Vijayawada following complaints that the company had cheated them. When there was no response from the officials concerned at the branch office and the branch manager performed a vanishing trick, the police were compelled to seize incriminating documents and sealed the office.
What is PACL India Limited and what fraud it has pulled upon the people and what prompted them to file a criminal complaint against the company are the crucial questions. Let us find answers for them.
PACL India Limited is a Jaipur-based company which earlier started in the name of Pearls Company. It has collected huge deposits from public in the guise of real estate business. Subsequently, it changed its name into PACL India Limited. It still has been collecting deposits promising a piece of plot somewhere in the country. It also promises to return deposits with interest at the rate of 12.5 per cent if it could not register land in the depositors’ name 270 days after submitting the deposit. It also issues a deposit certificate to that effect. The certificate is the crucial document where the rules are in small print. It says the company has the liberty to change the allocation of land anywhere in the country subject to availability. However, the company failed to return the deposits after the stipulated time of 270 days. And it evaded the queries of the depositors on the registration of land. It stirred the hornet’s nest. Already there have been discussions going on about the legality of the deposits. The depositors lodged a complaint with the police and the branch office was closed. Still, the company has been collecting deposits all over the country.
HOW IT FALLS UNDER PRIZE CHITS & MONEY CIRCULATION SCHEMES (BANNING) ACT, 1978. The police stumbled upon the information while conducting the raid that it has been collecting deposits for which it is not entitled as per Reserve Bank of India guidelines. Secondly, they have been offering incentives and huge commissions to the members if they enrolled more members. This attracts the provision of the Money Circulation Schemes Banning Act and that it is the last straw on the back of company. Though the branch is closed in Vijayawada more than days ago, the company could not reopen it as the local courts refused to give relief to the company. Now it is the turn of the police to conduct similar raids in the rest of the country and close the company forever and making it refund the deposits to the people. If the police at least now take suo motu action, it would save several lakhs of innocent people from falling prey to the designs of the company
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