PACL scam: Overseas assets can be moved against says Supreme Court

The Supreme Court today ordered that the committee appointed to oversee the refund of money by PACL Ltd. to its investors will have the jurisdiction to look into overseas assets of PACL..This order was passed in an application filed by Kerala based investors and employees of PACL praying for a direction to the court-appointed Committee to seize and sell all properties situated in Australia and belonging to the Company, its promoters and directors..The matter was heard today by a Bench of Justices Anil R Dave and AK Goel. Advocates PB Suresh, Vipin Nair, CP Chandrasekharan, Tishampati Sen and Prithu Garg appeared for the petitioners. Advocate Surekha Raman appeared for SEBI..The Supreme Court had appointed the committee headed by former Chief Justice of India, RM Lodha on February 2, 2016 to oversee the refunds..The employees, investors and customers had intervened in the matter through an association PACL Employees and Customer Protection Forum. In their application, the Petitioner association had contended that,. “the Promoters and Directors of PACL, in particular its Chairman and Managing Director Mr. Nirmal Bhangoo, has transferred over USD 130 million (i.e., approx. INR 884 Crores) from out of the amounts collected from investors in India, to Australia.”.The petitioner has also made serious allegations against former Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh and former Australian High Commissioner to India, Peter Varhgese. The petitioner has submitted that Bligh directly dealt with requests from members of Nirmal Bhangoo’s family to obtain “state-sponsored” visas..The petitioner had sought for a direction to be issued that all properties either in the name of PACL Ltd. or in the names of its Promoters/ Directors be sold by the Committee appointed pursuant to the order of February 2, 2016. It has also prayed for a direction to be issued to the Lodha Committee to contact the Competent Authorities in Australia to enquire into and deal with all properties of PACL Ltd..The Supreme Court had issued notice in the application on March 31 last week and listed the matter for today. After hearing the parties, the Court enlarged the scope of its earlier order of February 2 and directed that the Lodha Committee would have jurisdiction to look into the assets of PACL even outside India..With this order, the assets of sister concerns and associates of PACL will also come under the purview of the Supreme Court order of February 2.