IMA scam: CBI names former minister Roshan Baig in supplementary charge sheet

Bengaluru: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday filed a supplementary charge sheet against former Karnataka minister Roshan Baig in connection with I-Monetary Advisor (IMA) ponzi scam case

Bengaluru: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday filed a supplementary charge sheet against former Karnataka minister Roshan Baig in connection with I-Monetary Advisor (IMA) ponzi scam case. Baig was the minister for urban development in the Congress-led state government between 2014 and 2018.

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In the charge sheet filed before a special CBI court in Bengaluru, the central agency has also named the then MD of IMA Group, Mansoor Khan, the company, Baig’s company Daanish Publications and others.

“It was alleged that the accused former minister received several crores of rupees from IMA funds for election expenditure. It was further alleged that the accused was also utilising the said funds for day-to-day expenditure, including salaries of employees of his firm. It was also alleged that the accused has spent the funds for various social and cultural activities in his constituency to increase his popularity,” read a statement from CBI.

IMA was an investment banking company run by Mahommed Mansoor Khan, who claimed it was a sharia-compliant operation run on Islamic principles and which took huge deposits primarily from members of the Muslim community. When IMA stopped paying dividends in March 2019, investors lodged complaints with the police and in June 2019, the Karnataka government set up an SIT to investigate the more than 51,500 complaints that had been filed by investors.

On 30 August 2019, the case was transferred to CBI, which after a probe, sought permission of the state government to prosecute Hemant Nimbalkar, who was then IGP, CID and Ajay Hilori, who was the Deputy Commissioner East under Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and Section 170 of the Karnataka Police Act, 1963, for extending favours and protecting interests of the IMA promoters.

The central agency, which had registered four cases in connection with the scam, has filed three charge sheets and three supplementary charge sheets against 33 accused, including Khan, company directors, several revenue and police officials.

“It was alleged that the said Group had raised unauthorised deposits & cheated the public by failing to repay the principal and as well as the promised returns. These funds were allegedly diverted for acquiring properties, paying bribe amounts, etc. Several properties, including moveable & immovable, were identified and attached under KPIDFE (Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments) Act, 2004 by the competent authority,” the statement added.