63 Tamil Nadu officers indulge in illegal registration of 6,892 acres of land, nine suspended

“A total of 63 officers were found to have erred and nine have been suspended in connection with the incident. Steps are being taken to initiate action against the remaining 54 officers under section 17-B,” the release noted.

The assets were attached to Pearls Agrotech Corporation Ltd (PACL), a company which had raised money from the public in the name of agriculture and real estate. According to the Tamil Nadu government, several public interest litigation (PIL) cases were slapped against the company for not returning the money to investors.

The Supreme Court directed Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to constitute a panel under retired justice R M Lodha to probe the case. SEBI has detected that PACL has collected more than Rs 45,000 crore through illegal collective investment schemes from close to 5.46 crore investors.

The panel in 2016 ordered that the assets should be auctioned and the investment garnered through it should be split to the affected investors

In the statement released by the state government Tuesday, it was noted that PACL has around 50,000 acres of land on its name and its associated companies in the state.