The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday summoned I Monetary Advisory Jewels proprietor Mohammed Mansoor Khan in connection with the IMA Jewels scam. The agency has asked Khan to appear before it along with relevant documents on June 24, India Today reported.
The summons were served at the IMA jewels office in Bengaluru. Khan reportedly fled to the United Arab Emirates on June 8, and a request for a Red Corner Notice is currently pending before the Interpol.
Khan has been accused of running a ponzi scheme in Karnataka that has allegedly duped more than 30,000 people of Rs 5,000 crore. People from Bengaluru, Hyderabad, New Delhi, and Tamil Nadu are said to have invested into the company.
The Bengaluru-based company had been collecting investments for several years, assuring investors of returns of over 3% per month. The fraud came to light after hundreds of people gathered outside the investment firm’s offices on June 12, saying that it had not provided returns on their investments for more than two months.
An audio clip purportedly of Khan started doing the rounds, in which he asked the police to return money to the people by liquidating his properties, and blamed former Congress minister Roshan Baig for the crisis. The Congress leader has denied the allegations, and said that the clip was fake.
On Thursday, a special investigation team headed by Deputy Inspector General BR Ravikanthe Gowda, raided the IMA Jewels head office in Bengaluru, ANI reported. It seized jewellery and gems from the company’s showroom in Jayanagar in Bengaluru. Gold worth around Rs 13 crore, diamonds worth Rs 17.6 crore, and Rs 1.5 crore worth of silver have been recovered, India Today quoted a press release by the team as saying.
The team also arrested the company’s long-time auditor Iqbal Khan. Seven directors of several entities associated with Mansoor Khan were also taken into custody on Wednesday. The police said that over 25,000 complaints had been registered against the company so far. Meanwhile, the police have set up special kiosks at a convention centre in Bengaluru’s Shivaji Nagar to register their complaints against IMA Jewels.
Karnataka likely to enact law to attach scam-tainted property
The Karnataka government is set to introduce a bill that will allow the police to seize property of companies and individuals who have been accused in scams, The Economic Times quoted state Home Minister MB Patil as saying.
Patil said that an amendment to the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1944 will be introduced by the state in the next Assembly session. The proposed law would also empower the police to seize immovable property of the accused. This provision already exists in Tamil Nadu.
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