Imphal Times Supplementary issue Page No. 2

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Edited by Rinku Khumukcham, Owned and Published by Iboyaima Khuman at Keishamthong Elangbam Leikai, Imphal and Printed by him at M/s Imphal Times Printers, Elangbam Leikai Imphal West, Contact No. 2452159, Resident Editor- Jeet Akoijam

Friday, October 18, 2019Editorial

By - Raju Vernekar

Over 6 crore investors PanIndia, duped in a Rs. 49,100crore scam of the “PearlsAgrotech Corporation Limited(PACL)”, can have a glimmer ofhope of getting their moneyback, with Indo-UK Institutes ofHealth (IUIH), volunteering topurchase some of the seizedproperties of PACL to set up“medicities” in different statesin India.

In a letter dated 28 January 2019addressed to the Justice (retd) RM Lodha Committee (set up by theSupreme Court of India tosupervise the process of sellingPACL’s assets and refundinvestors’ money), the IUIH hasstated that it would like to acquire11 parcels of land to set upmedicities in India and as suchnecessary permission be given.

Similarly, while hearing a civilappeal (No 13301/2015) filed bySubrata Bhattacharya againstSecurities and Exchange Board ofIndia (SEBI), a division benchcomprising Dr. Justice D YChandrachud and Justice IndiraBanerjee at the Supreme Court, hastaken a note of the statement of theLodha Committee that it hasreceived ‘suo motu proposals/expressions of interest from IUIHfor acquisition of land . TheCommittee by public notice dated19 August 2019 had also invitedproposals from other parties, whowere asked to submit the proposalstill 16 September 2019. However asof now the IUIH is the onlycompany who has offered topurchase the PACL’s land.

“We leave it open to theCommittee to receive any furtheroffers and to explore them after dulypublishing a notice on the website.We authorize the Committee toexplore whether a substantiveoutcome can be achieved. TheCommittee will keep this courtapprised of further developmentsbefore taking a final decision”, thebench added.

The IUIH program is a jointeffort of the U.K. and IndianGovernments for the creation ofMedicities in different parts ofIndia. A task force has already beenconstituted under the chairmanshipof the Secretary, Union Departmentof Health and Family Welfare forsetting up 11 institu tes acrossIndia. The agreement about this 10-year long pro ject was signedbetween Indian Pr ime MinisterNarendra Modi and former BritishPrime Minister David Cameron inNovember 2015.

IUIH is a 100 per cent Indiansubsidiary of UK Global HealthcareLtd (UGHL), which is inpartnership with Bin Zayed BinZayed Group( Bin ZayedInternational LLC and Bin ZayedAsia LLC). It has offered to acquireland in the name of “Indo UKHealthcare Pvt Ltd”. The funds willbe transferred from UGHL into IndoUK-Healthcare Pvt Ltd as ForeignDirect Investment (FDI).

Up till now the IUIH hasacquired 151.4 acre land inNagpur(Maharashtra) and 150 acreland in Amravati( Andhra Pradesh).It has also identified following landparcels: Delhi-West Delhi district,near Mundka metro station-151.60acre, Maharashtra-Pune SUS area-455.56 acre, Karnataka-Bengalore-Devanhalli-535.77 acre, Haryana-Gurugram-Farukh Nagar-308.90acre, Gujarat-Vadodara-TehsilDabhoi-126.47 acre, Goa-100.84acre, Uttar Pradesh-Lucknow-Mohanlal Ganj-284.62 acre, Kerala-

*** Raju Vernekar is a Media Professional base in Mumbai. He had served as Chief Reporter at FreePress Journal (1996 – 2015 ). His Activities includes writing for different news papers, script writing/production for TV channels, Films Division. Writing poems in Marathi, Hindi, English, Guiding massmedia students and helping people to solve their problems.

A glimmer of hope to crores of duped investorsErnakulam-267 acre, Punjab-Ludhiana (Banohar andHassanpur)-91 acre, Ludhiana-nearSahnewal airport-441 acre, Mohalli-(sector 114 and 115)-30 acre, tehsilDera Bassi, village Chhat-105 acre,Tamil Nadu,Madurai-75.995 acreand Mumbai, Maharashtra-Vasai300 acre. Besides, it has also signedMOUs with Maharashtra, AP, MP,Assam, Punjab , Gujarat,Telangana, Haryana, Karnataka,Uttar Pradesh and UttarakhandGovernments.

PACL and Pearls Golden ForestLtd (PGFL), are being accused ofcheating over 6 crore investors onthe pretext of sale anddevelopment of agriculture land.They made false allotments of landto investors, although they neverowned them. PACL promised theinvestors that the land would beallotted to them within 90 to 270days and if not, handsome returnon their investment will be given.PACL was incorporated on 13February 1996 with the registrar ofcompanies, Jaipur, underCompanies Act 1956 having itsRegistered Office in Jaipur andcorporate office in New Delhi.

The mobilisation of funds byPACL dates back to the year 1997,when based on a complaint, SEBIon 30 November 1999 and 10

December 1999, issued letters toPACL directing it to comply withthe provisions of the collectiveinvestment scheme (CIS)regulations. However PACLchallenged SEBI’s letters in theRajasthan High Court, 1999,claiming that its scheme does notfall under the definition of CIS asdefined under the CIS Regulationand SEBI Act. In response, theRajasthan High Court on 28November 2003, ruled that PACL’sschemes were not CIS as definedunder Section 11AA of the SEBIAct and quashed SEBI’s lettersissued to PACL. Then SEBIappealed in the SC against theorder of Rajasthan HC. The SC on25 February 2013, upheld theconstitutional valid ity of CISRegulations, and directed SEBI toinvestigate the matter and takeappropriate action.

The ponzy scheme wasallegedly floated by Nirmal SinghBhangoo and his three colleagues.PACL not only roped in Australiancricketer Brett Lee as its brandambassador, but also reportedlyinvested millions of dollars inAustralia in 2010, through shellcompanies. This was reflected inthe first charge sheet filed beforethe “Tis Hajari Court” in Delhi. Thedetails of money invested inAustralia by Bhangoo, were

provided by investors. . VishalMhetre , Mrs Nanda Jagtap andothers, in the Federal court ofAustralia, before approaching theIndian government. The SEBI wasable to free the sale amount inAustralian federal court with thehelp of Indian advocates AnandBhagat and Manoj Nayak throughinvestigator Naill Corbun whoinvestigated the case for IndianInvestors in Australia.

In 2014, SEBI attached all bank,demat accounts and mutual fundportfolios of PACL and its eightdirectors and promoters, for itsfailure to comply with its orderdated 22 August 2014 directing itto wind up the schemes and refundRs 49,100 crore to the investorswithin three months from the dateof the order. PACL filed an appealbefore the Securities AppellateTribunal (SAT), which was

dismissed on 12 August 2015. Subsequently, the Central

Bureau of Investigation(CBI)registered a case against PACL andbased on the CBI complaint, theEnforcement Directorate (ED)lodged an first information report(FIR) in 2015. Bhangoo and histhree colleagues were arrested byCBI in 2016. In September 2018, theED filed a charge-sheet againstPACL and attached Australia-based assets of the Pearls Groupworth Rs.472 crore.

Bhangoo and h is familymembers reportedly teamed upwith property developers- PaulBrinsmead and Peter Madrers of“Gold Coast property developers”.They were operating the company“Resort Corp”, engaged indeveloping large tracts of coastalland in the Tweed Shire in northernNew South Wales (NSW) beforeits group of 14 companiescollapsed in March 2009.. Sixmonths later, Brinsmead andMadrers founded “Pear lsAustralasia” with Bhangoo, his sonHarvinder Singh Bhangoo andson-in-law Gurpartap Singh. LaterBhango o’s o ther daughterBarinder Kaur and her husband,Harsatinder Singh Hayer, alsojoined the company as directors.

In September 2014, “Pear lsAustralasia” changed its name to

“MiiGr oup Holdings” andreferred itself as the “MiiGroupof companies”. These companieswere based in a waterfront officeat Bundall on the Gold Coast.“Shac Communications”, a publicrelations company also functionedfrom the same address. SimoneHolzapfel, chief political adviser toformer Australian P M TonyAbbott, was stated to be the MDof the “Shac Communications”. However lately “MiiGroup”,distanced itself from the PACLscam.

In 2018, SEBI filed a claimpetition in the Federal Court ofAustralia to recover dues worth Rs4 b illion stashed away by thePACL using several shell entities.SEBI sought repatriation of theassets or the proceeds thereof.The Federal Court passed order onJuly 23, 2018 accepting the claim

petition filed by SEBI. However although SEBI has

began p rocess of auc tioningPACL’s property, till now it hasbeen able to recover hardly Rs.86.20 c rore by sell ing 113properties, at the conclusion of thesecond auction process.

The de tails of PACL’s properties (worth Rs 1000 croreand above) are: East Zone-

Assam (01 property), Bihar( 33proper ties) , Chattisgarh(104) ,Jharkhand (01), Odisha (546),WestBengal(905)=1590. North Zone-Chandigarh(5) , Delh i (373) ,Haryan a(769) , HimachalPradesh(11), Punjab(2405),UttarPradesh (428) , Uttar akhand(368)=4359. South Zone-AndhraPradesh(612), Karnatak(1090) ,Kerala(04), Tamil Nadu(10284)Telengana(973)=12963. WestZone- Goa(24) , Gujarat(188) ,Madhya Pradesh(4498) , M a h a r a s h t r a ( 1 4 4 9 ) ,Rajasthan(3903)=10,062. Totalnumber of properties-28974

The Lodha Committee whichreceived claim applicationsnumbering 12169196 aggregatingRs. 24235.45 crore till 5 May 2019,extended the deadline to 31 July2019 to enable investors to lodgetheir claims. The claims up toRs.5000 are currently be ingprocessed for effecting refund.

Nirmal Bhangoo and other directors of PACL (file photo)

The significance ofOctober 18 in

Manipur’s historyThese days some people re-write or re-built history to prove

their claim of being an aged nation legitimate. Students ofhistory were taught that history cannot be re-write or re-

built, but it can be a lesson to change the future. The wrong that hasbeen committed during the course of nation buildings, or the painsthat many felt when their freedom and rights were shattered in thecourse of either building a nation or expanding colony have beenknown through historical record and it is those history that makespeople of today to act so that it does not repeat in the future.

October 18, 1948, was an important day for the erstwhile nationcalled Manipur. As per record available from the writings of manyeminent scholars, Manipur was declared a sovereign state afterthe British Paramountcy left on the midnight of August 14, 1947.And thu s many civ il s ociety organization celebra tes theindependence Day of Manipur on August 14, a day ahead thatIndia got its independence. However, some scholar advocated thecelebration of Manipur’s Independence Day of August 15 as mostrelevant. Well, the idea of writing this piece is not to argue onwhich date we should celebrate the independence day of Manipur,as it is well recorded that the British left the erstwhile kingdom ofManipur on the midnight of August 14 af ter restor ing thesovereignty of the nation. This record itself proves that Manipurwas an Independent nation ruled by a king which have properpolitical and geographical boundary.

After the British lef t, over 500 small Kingdoms wereamalgamated to build the nation called India. Some Kingdomsopposed the moved but almost all the Kingdoms were amalgamatedeither through talks and war. It will not be right to give a criticalnote to the move for building of a Indian Nation as the over 500small kingdoms have similar facial structures and anatomicalappearance besides similar religions. May be the revolt at somemajor Indian states following the amalgamation of the smallKingdoms were against the system which they felt not fit that time.

Coming to the state of Manipur, an erstwhile nation, Manipurwas perhaps the second nation in the South East Asian Countriesto have a people’s government through adult franchise. July 1948,election was conducted and Manipur in actuality became asovereign peoples’ republic when its assembly with its memberselected through adult franchise had its first session on this day of1948. This again proves that Manipur at the time of merger to theIndian Union have proper territorial and political boundary andthat as per the Uti possidetis juris there is no way that theInternational law would accept segregation of the Manipur’sterritorial boundary.

It is a much that the people of the state celebrate this day, theOctober 18 of 1948 as first state assembly session of thegovernment elected by the people of the state through properelectoral process. This will remind the government of India andthose who are striving hard to distort the geographical boundaryof the state into pieces that Manipur’s merger to Indian union isnot to sacrifice the land, identity, culture and status of the erstwhilenation protected by our ancestors since time immemorial andcontinue to be protected by people of the state belonging to variouscommunity of the state.

One thing need to remind the government of Manipur is that-the first state assembly session of pre merger period was heldon October 18, 1948. This perhaps has been kept as record butunfortunate part is that the state government, particularly theManipur the Manipur legislative Assembly need to observed thisday in a highly decorated manner. Government of India shouldalso be proud to have Manipur as a part of the country as thiserstwhile nation is the first to hold adult franchise to elect theirrepresentatives for running a democratic form of government.Prime Minister Narendra Modi should also take advantage ofthe state for being the second Asiatic country to have a peoples’elected government.

Hope the state government celebrate the October 18 as theday of the first Manipur legislative Assembly by next year in agrand way.

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