11 PACL employees held

Purnia: In one of the biggest crackdowns on a non-banking finance company which has defrauded depositors’ hard-earned savings, police on Tuesday arrested 11 officials of Pearl Agrotech Corporation Limited (PACL), which had collected Rs 1.24 crore from depositors.
Police station swung into action and arrested 11 officials of the PACL from its branch near bus terminal at Purnia town on Tuesday after Purnia (East) circle officer (CO) Ashutosh Jha formally lodged a complaint with the Khazanchihat police station against 23 persons including its Delhi-based chief executive director and local branch manager of the company, police said.
Among those arrested on Tuesday were Purnia-based branch manager Manoj Kumar Karn, senior assistant Gopal Kumar Mishra, assistants Gautam Kumar, Babban Kumar, Mritunjay Kumar, Chandramani Kumar Singh, Amrendra Kumar Gupta, Neeraj Kumar Singh and Arun Kumar Rao, police said.
Those figuring in the FIR are Delhi-based chief executive director Sukhdeo Singh, Nirmal Singh Bhangu, Anand Gurwant Singh, Trilochan Singh, Utpal Praveen Kumar and Kolkatta based IT supervisor Shashi Kant Mohanti, police said.
Earlier, extensive raids were carried out at Purnia branch of PCCL near bus terminal on Monday during which Rs 4.47 lakh cash, registers and documents were seized.
Though SEBI had banned all such schemes by the PACL on August 22, 2014, the company continued with its shoddy transactions, sources said.
Purnia SDPO Manoj Kumar, talking to TOI on Wednesday, confirmed that 11 officials of PACL had so far been arrested and police are still continuing with their investigations.