Pearls scam accused Bhangoo back in jail

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 22

Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, head of the Pearl Group of Companies and the main accused in the Rs45,000 crore scam of duping the investors of the company, has returned to the Bathinda jail after staying in a private hospital for eight months.

Bhangoo was shifted to the jail on Saturday evening, a day after The Tribune reported that Bathinda jail officials and the CBI had sought his return to the jail.

On the demand of the jail authorities, the state Health Department had formed a board of doctors to examine Bhangoo on whether or not he needs to stay in the hospital.

The medical examination won’t be required now as Bhangoo has returned to the prison.

“He is admitted to a hospital inside the jail,” said a senior jail official. “He was shifted on Saturday after the private hospital discharged him.”

The Bathinda police had arrested him in June last year on the complaint of some duped investors. The CBI had also sought his production in two separate FIRs registered against him in New Delhi.

Bhangoo was arrested and lodged in Tihar Jail. He was transferred to the Bathinda jail in June after a third FIR was regisrtered.

After a few days, he had to be shifted to the private hospital in Mohali for the treatment of his heart ailment. He was discharged twice, but developed some problem in the process and was re-admitted.

A number of investors of the Pearl Group that offered plots and agricultural land to them had staged dharnas outside the hospital, seeking his discharge.