IMA jewels scam: SIT to probe points raised by Mansoor Khan

Team Udayavani, Jun 25, 2019, 11:05 AM IST

Bengaluru: The Special Investigation Team would probe all the points raised by IMA Jewels’ alleged ponzi scheme operator Mansoor Khan in his latest video in which he has dragged big names, a top SIT official said here Monday.

Leaving thousands of investors, mostly Muslims, in the lurch, Khan has fled the country and is suspected to be in Dubai.

In his video message released in YouTube on Sunday, Khan threw some big names for the IMA Jewels’ muddle and claimed a threat to his life.

Speaking to reporters, SIT chief Deputy Inspector General of police Dr B R Ravikanthe Gowda said, “We will probe allthe points mentioned in the video message Mansoor Khan had released yesterday.

If there is any truth, then we will initiateaction as per the law.”

He said that serving notices based on someone’s statement was not the proper way of investigation.

If there was evidence, the SIT would summon them for interrogation, he added.

The SIT Monday said it carried out searches at the IMA head office at Shivajinagar here and found a huge quantity of mortgaged gold and other valuable gems.

The JD(S) too felt the heat following BJP’s allegation that the accused Khan once had meals with Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.

Replying to queries by journalists, former Prime Minister and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda asked people to wait till Khan appears before the police.

“He has said he would come back and give statement. Now permission has been given to him,” Deve Gowda told reporters.

To a question on BJP’s charge against his son Kumaraswamy, Gowda said, “Let us see what he says about how much money the CM and others have taken. It is only after he gives a statement. Isn’t it sir?”

Meanwhile, former Rajya Sabha deputy chairman K Rahman Khan dissociated himself from Khan.
His reaction came as the IMA Jewels owner dragged Rahman Khan’s name for the IMA muddle in his video released on YouTube.

“I had been opposing him. So he said (in the video) I am happy about the failure (of IMA Jewels) today,” Rahman Khan told reporters.

Rubbishing speculations that he was in touch with Khan, he said he met him only once when ShivajinagarMLA R Roshan Baig brought him at his residence to introducehim.

He said that being a professional chartered accountant, he had always doubted the business model of IMA Jewels from day one.

“I used to audit hundreds of such companies. That was my profession. People used to discuss with me how he (Mansoor Khan) was operating when he has neither capital, nor it was a public limited company or a private limited company.

Thereturns he was offering was difficult for Tatas and Reliance tooffer,” Khan said.

He said the RBI chief commissioner had once messaged him to caution the Muslim community against the fraud company.

Rahman Khan felt that Khan should have informed his investors about the Income Tax raids, searches by Enforcement Directorate and alerts from the Reserve Bank of India.

Khan wondered why the state-level coordination committee of RBI had not taken action though the minutes of the meeting prepared in 2017 clearly put IMA and similar companies in the list of fraud companies.

The committee, said Rahman Khan, comprised the chief secretary, director general of police, Bengaluru police commissioner and deputy commissioner of Bengaluru.

As Mansoor Khan is at large, the food and civil supplies minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan Monday once again appealed to him to come back to India.

“You only said that you will provide the list of those whotook money from you and asked to get the money back from themand return it to them.

I appeal to you to come back. I assureyou again that we will get the money back from the list ofpeople whom you paid the money,” the minister said.

Promising huge returns, Mansoor Khan allegedly lured gullible Muslim investors to invest in his firm,saying his was a ‘Halal’ company adhereing to the Islamic way of investment.

Before fleeing, Khan released an audio clip saying that he wished to committ suicide and blamed a few politicians, including Roshan Baig and corruption in the state and central governments.

Baig has refuted the charges, saying that these were baseless.