The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday conducted a search operation at former Congress Minister Roshan Baig’s residence near Bengaluru’s Coles Park in Frazer Town. The search operation was conducted after the former MLA from Shivajinagar was arrested and sent to 14-day judicial custody on Sunday night in connection with the I Monetary Advisory’s (IMA) Ponzi scam case. Over 30,000 people have lost crores of rupees by investing in IMA.
Police sources said that the CBI conducted searches at Roshan Baig’s residence on a suspicion that he possessed disproportionate assets. During the investigation, Mohammed Mansoor Khan, the founder of IMA and prime accused in the scam, allegedly confessed to the CBI that he had given Roshan Baig a loan of Rs 200 crore, which was never returned. The CBI is in the process of recovering assets of the accused persons in the case due to which they had detained Roshan Baig for questioning on Sunday morning.
Sources said that the CBI officials are looking for undisclosed income and the search operation on Monday was to recover documents and data from Baig’s residence. The source said that CBI is likely to attach Roshan Baig’s properties in order to repay the money to investors as Mansoor Khan allegedly claimed that he was forced to pay crores of rupees to Roshan Baig in order to keep the business going.
In 2019, the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which was probing the case, had detained Roshan Baig after his name cropped up in the case. The prime accused, Mohammed Mansoor Khan, had in a video alleged that Roshan Baig had extorted money from him.
After the video was uploaded on YouTube, Roshan Baig was detained by the SIT as he had tried to board a private charter plane to a foreign country. The SIT had alleged that Baig was trying to flee the country. When the scam broke out in 2019, the then Revenue Minister RV Deshpande had said that Roshan Baig had introduced him to Mansoor Khan in July that year, asking for favours to not investigate the company’s dealings as suggested by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), TNM had earlier reported.
Baig is a seven-time MLA of the Shivajinagar constituency, which is at the heart of Bengaluru city. Until his unceremonious exit from the Congress party, Baig was considered as the tallest leader of the Muslim community in the state’s political circles. It may be recalled Baig was among the 17 MLAs of the erstwhile JDS)-Congress coalition government, who resigned and paved the way for the formation of the current BS Yediyurappa-led government in the state.