LUCKNOW, July 11 -- : The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Uttar Pradesh Police on Wednesday arrested key accused Gurnam Singh from Punjab's Ropar district in connection with the nearly Rs 49,000 crore Pearls Agro-tech Corporation Ltd (PACL) investment scam and brought him to U.P.'s Jalaun on Thursday for further legal proceedings, said director general (DG) of EOW Neera Rawat at a press conference in Lucknow on Thursday. Gurnam Singh is one of the directors of the firm, according to the U.P. EOW. Rawat said the scam involved at least five crore gullible investors spread across 10 states, including Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar, and Chhattisgarh. The company allegedly collected huge sums of money from the public by promising to provide plots of land in various districts of Uttar Pradesh, including Mahoba, Sultanpur, Farrukhabad, and Jalaun, Rawat added. She said PACL issued bond receipts to investors without registering itself as a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) with the Reserve Bank of India. The company collected approximately Rs.49,000 crore from investors across 10 states but failed to provide plots of land or refund the invested amount. Gurnam Singh lived a secret life at a farm house built away from his village in Ropar, Punjab and was involved in farming, a police official privy to the investigation said. He also said Gurnam Singh was earlier arrested in 2016 by CBI along with four more accused in a case registered in Delhi between 2012 and 2015, but came out on bail after six months and started living a secret life despite being wanted in multiple cases connected with the alleged scam. He said he was wanted in the case related to the same scam in Jalaun since then and was arrested on Wednesday. "The accused has been handed over to the Jalaun police after bringing him to UP on transit remand for further legal proceedings," he said. PACL chairman Nirmal Singh Bhangoo and three other officials, who were also arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2016 in connection with a similar case in Delhi, are still in Delhi's Tihar Jail, and the EOW has also obtained a B warrant against them in the matter. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a charge sheet against PACL and its chief Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, in 2018, alleging a Ponzi scam involving over Rs.49,100 crore. Before that, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) attached PACL's bank accounts, demat accounts, and mutual fund portfolios in 2016 for failing to comply with its orders. PACL, formerly known as Guruvante Agro-Tech Limited, was registered in 1996 with the Registrar of Companies (ROC) in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The company's name was later changed to Pearls Agro-Tech Corporation Limited in 2011. PACL operated in 10 states across India....