STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Continuing with its efforts to protect the interest of consumers being fleeced by misleading advertisements about doubling of their money in the shortest possible time, the department of Legal Metrology on Thursday came at the rescue of one lady namely Garo Devi, wife of Madan Lal, resident of Meen Chak Bari Brahmana, who was duped of her hard earned saved money which she invested in real estate company for expecting lucrative growth.
According to the complainant, she invested Rs. 50,000 in three parts at the rate of Rs. 20,000, Rs. 20,000 and Rs. 10,000 with M/S PACL Indial Limited, commonly known by PEARL having its local office at Canal Road and registered office at Jaipur with the hope to double its amount after its maturity date in July 2014. With high hopes she approached the said company after maturity and submitted the Buy Back papers for liquidation of the amount in her favour, who in turn was assured to wait for further few days. After continuously visiting for more than 3 months regularly at their doorsteps, she was refused the promised payments. Sensing foul smell she approached the department of Legal Metrology to register her complaint of unfair trade practices under Consumer Protection Act.
Acting swiftly on the complaint, Joint Controller Legal Metrology Amar Singh immediately took cognisance of the complaint and searched the whereabouts of the company at the internet site which revealed frequent cases of cheating by the said company. It was also revealed that Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has already directed PACL, the firm under question to refund Rs. 44,000 crore to the investors in three months’ time and it was the biggest crack down by SEBI on the entity in monetary terms with the direction to its promoters and directors to wind up all the existing collective investment schemes. The department immediately approached the local officers of the company on behalf of the aggrieved consumer and ensured that the said amount is being released by the company on the spot.
The company officials meekly surrendered fearing the initiative of legal action from the department and to come out of the situation, company immediately released an amount of Rs. 1,07,000 including the interest.
Meanwhile, department appealed to all the investors to check the credentials of such companies before investment rather than to cry at the later stage.