A special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court in Bengaluru on Saturday sent Mohammed Mansoor Khan, the main accused in the multi-crore IMA Jewels scam, to the Enforcement Directorate custody till July 23, PTI reported. This came a day after the IMA Jewels owner, who had fled to Dubai, was arrested after he arrived in Delhi on Friday.
He was brought back to Bengaluru on Saturday and produced before the court, where the Enforcement Directorate sought his custodial remand, unidentified officials told PTI.
Khan reportedly revealed big names involved in the case during his questioning, according to India Today. He will be confronted with documentary evidence gathered by the probe agency along with statements recorded by other suspects in the case.
The Karnataka Special Investigation Team, which is also investigating IMA, had also demanded police custody of Khan, India Today reported. They said they had arrested 23 accused in the case and his custody was required to establish the links.
The scam
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. However, 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.
On July 8, the SIT had arrested Deputy Commissioner of Bengaluru urban district BM Vijay Shankar for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 1.5 crore from Khan. Shankar had purportedly taken the bribe in exchange for a favourable report after the Reserve Bank of India had asked the state government to investigate the firm’s business.
The SIT had also detained suspended Congress MLA Roshan Baig in the case and questioned him for several hours.
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