Two Karnataka cadre IPS officers Hemanth Nimbalkar and Ajay Hilori along with three police personnel have been booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Rs 4000 crore IMA scam. They are accused of favouring I Monetary Advisory (IMA) scamster Mansoor Khan in the ponzi scheme scam where more than 50000 people had lost their money.
A case was registered against the Karnataka Police officers after the state government granted approval to investigate the role of both the senior IPS officers. 1998 batch IPS Officer Hemanth Nibalkar is ACP (admin) of the Bengaluru city and Ajay Hilori, a 2008 batch IPS Officer is the Commandant in State reserve police.
The CBI has also booked Gowri Shankar ( sub-inspector with Karnataka Police), EB Sridhara (DSP of CID, Karnataka Police) and M Ramesh (then Inspector with Karnataka police). Apart from these police officials, the CBI also booked Mansoor Khan, chief of IMA and three other office bearers of IMA.
The IMA scam is one of the massive scams to rock the Karnataka state, around 50,000 investors lost their money in this scam. IMA Managing Director Mohammad Mansoor Khan had attracted investors, especially Muslims, by offering an investment scheme that appeared to follow Islamic precepts and provided lucrative returns.
The Special Investigation team affirmed that the investors are defrauded worth INR 4,000 crore. Mansoor khan fled India before the scam broke.
The probe on the IMA scam was conducted under Hemanth Nibalkar. The report submitted by the probe team had given chit to the company stating that was based on the documents and evidence collected. They could not find any corroboration that can show that IMA cheated investors after they promised lucrative returns. The report also stated that the balance sheet of Mansoor Khan and Income Tax Returns of the country were verified.
The probe team led by Hemanth Nibalkar is alleged of deliberate inaction and providing favours to IMA during the investigation.
Puzzled by how a senior officer can give a clean chit to a controversial firm and after a warning by RBI, the state police have directed CID to investigate the matter.
In 2015, an activist had alerted police about the IMA, but he was turned down by the officials. In 2016, despite alerts by RBI the officers had closed the case giving a clean chit stating that the business is being conducted in the purview of the law. Mohammed Mansoor Khan, the main accused in the IMA Ponzi scam, also known as the Halal investment scam, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in New Delhi in July last year.
