Supplementary challan against EX-IAS officer Pirzada, others filed
CHANDIGARH : The Chandigarh zonal unit of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a supplementary challan against Gurnihal Singh Pirzada (former IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre) and others in a case of siphoning off funds.
The money, around ₹231 crore, was allegedly embezzled out of a company, International Customers Related Management Services Pvt Ltd (ICRMS), which Pirzada had floated, ED investigation had found.
The ED had started investigation under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act for siphoning off funds from the ICRMS after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered six FIRS. In 2015, the Punjab and Haryana high court had ordered the constitution of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising officials from the CBI, the ED, Income tax and the ministry of corporate affairs to probe the alleged ₹231-cr scam.
This was after Amritsar-based human rights activist and advocate, Sarabjit Singh Verka, had filed a Public Interest Litigationin the high court claiming that Pirzada, a Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer, during his deputation as the managing director, Punjab State Electronics Development and Production Limited Corporation, from October 28, 1999 to October 29, 2001, had floated ICRMS with one Raman Uppal as its dummy director.
The ED investigations into the case under the PMLA showed that the accused acquired proper- ties, which were generated out of proceeds of crime spawned by siphoning off funds from the ICRMS. The ED investigation also showed that the money was siphoned off by way of grant of unsecured loans by the ICRMS to benami companies of Pirzada.
These companies were Fateh Homes Pvt Ltd, Fateh Resorts Pvt Ltd and Fateh Softech Pvt Ltd. These three companies had Joginderpreet Singh (a cousin of Pirzada) and Joginderpreet’s mother, Amarjit Kaur, as its directors. They were found to be working on meagre salaries in the ICRMS.
Joginderpreet was allegedly instrumental in the grant of unsecured loans to these three companies, and is also accused of manipulating the shareholding patterns of these firms using forged and false documents, according to the ED investigation.
ED, in October 2017, had issued provisional orders for attaching properties worth more than ₹16 crore of these three companies on the charges of money laundering. This included four immoveable properties, a six-kanal house in Sector 4, Chandigarh, and three others (two plots in Mullanpur village and one in Seonk village in Mohali).