E-Paper
Karnataka govt permits CBI to prosecute two senior IPS officers in IMA scam
When IMA stopped paying dividends in March 2019, investors lodged complaints with the police and in June 2019, the Karnataka government set up a SIT to investigate the more than 51,500 complaints which had been filed by investors.
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The Karnataka government on Monday permitted the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to prosecute two senior IPS officers Hemant M Nimbalkar and Ajay Hilori in the I-Monetary Advisory (IMA) ponzi scam in which several thousand investors have lost at least ₹5000 crore.
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 a SIT to investigate the more than 51,500 complaints which had been filed by investors.
On 30 August 2019, the investigation had been transferred to CBI which after a probe sought permission of the state government to prosecute Hemant Nimbalkar who was then IGP, CID and Ajay Hilor who was Deputy Commissioner East under section 197 of CPC and section 170 of the Karnataka Police Act 1963, for extending favours and protecting interests of the IMA promoters.
The CBI has said Nimbalkar favoured Mansoor Khan and IMA by preventing a proper enquiry into its affairs. Ajay Hilori has been accused of accepting illegal gratification for extending favours to Khan and IMA. The permission by the state government has been given to CBI vide a letter dated September 11, which was made public today. Incidentally, Nimbalkar’s wife Anjali is the sitting Congress MLA from Khanpur assembly segment of Belgavi.
Neither Hemant Nimbalkar nor Ajay Hilori were available to comment on the government’s decision to allow CBI to prosecute them.
