The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday filed a supplementary chargesheet before the special CBI court in Bengaluru against former Karnataka Minister R Roshan Baig and others involved in the I-Monetary Advisory scam. According to a CBI release, Baig allegedly received several crores of rupees from the firm for election expenditure.
In its chargesheet, the CBI said that Baig was allegedly utilising the IMA funds for day-to-day expenditure including salaries of employees of his firm besides spending funds for various social and cultural activities in his constituency to increase his popularity.
The IMA scam involves unauthorised deposits raised to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore from around one lakh investors, and these funds were allegedly diverted to Baig, so that the firm could continue its illegal activities. Since the CBI took over this case, it has registered four cases and filed three chargesheets and three supplementary charge sheets against 33 accused including IMA Managing Director and CEO Mansoor Khan and its directors, several private persons, revenue and police officials.
It was alleged that the said group had raised unauthorised deposits and 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 and immovable assets were identified and attached under the Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishment (KPIDFE) Act by the competent authority.
Meanwhile, following the direction of the courts, the competent authority has started out giving partial compensation from March to the victims of the scam. Claims of around 3,500 persons of less than Rs 50,000 each were being dealt with on priority basis.
In another related development, IPS officer Hemant Nimbalkar who was to be prosecuted in the case got relief from the High Court.The HC in March quashed the sanction accorded by the government to prosecute him in the IMA case.