The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested former Congress Minister Roshan Baig in connection to the IMA ponzi scam case on Sunday. Mohammed Mansoor Khan is the main accused in the case in which he duped 30,000 investors of crores of rupees in a Ponzi scam. Baig is accused of helping Khan in fleeing the country when the scam was unearthed.
CBI officials raided house of former mla and minister @rroshanbaig residence. Baig was sent to judicial custody yesterday. He is alleged to have taken Rs. 10 crore from IMA Ponzi scam accused Mansoor Khan. pic.twitter.com/gbpcNQKysU
— Imran Khan (@keypadguerilla) November 23, 2020
CBI searched Baig’s residence and took him to custody. Later in the evening, CBI put him under arrest. Baig was detained by Special Investigating Team (SIT) probing the case. Khan, in a video, alleged that Baig had extorted money from him. The said the video was uploaded on YouTube, after which SIT detained him. When SIT got hold of him, he was trying to board a private charter plane to leave the country.
NDTV journalist drags BJP
NDTV journalist Arvind Gunasekar posted a tweet stating Baig is a former Congress MLA who “jumped ship from Congress to BJP in 2019.”
He claimed that Baig is now associated with the BJP.Roshan Baig, former Karnataka MLA who jumped ship from Congress to BJP in 2019 has been arrested by CBI in IMA scam case.
— Arvind Gunasekar (@arvindgunasekar) November 22, 2020
However, BJP had denied Baig’s entry into the party in 2019, stating his link to the IMA case. In November 2019, when the Supreme Court allowed the disqualified Congress MLAs to contest by-poll elections on 17 assembly seats, all but Baig were welcomed by BJP in the party.
A senior Congress leader, Baig was 7-times MLA of Shivajinagar, Bengaluru representing Congress.
After several netizens pointed out the error, Gunasekar posted another tweet with correct information that Baig was never with BJP.
Correction: Baig quit Congress but didn’t join BJP. BJP refused him ticket to contest in the bye-election.
— Arvind Gunasekar (@arvindgunasekar) November 23, 2020
The infamous IMA case
In 2015, an activist had alerted police about a scam brewing at IMA, but he was turned down by the officials. RBI asked the Karnataka government to look into the IMA’s dealing. In 2016, the Karnataka police submitted a report stating they could not find any irregularities in the dealings as all investors were partners in the company. RBI was not satisfied with the answer and asked to probe the case again. The case was reopened in 2018. 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.
Including Mohammed Mansoor Khan, the kingpin of the scam, former Assistant Commissioner of Bengaluru North Taluk LC Nagaraj and former village accountant Manjunath N, 25 people were arrested in the case. In the supplement chargesheet filed by the police, 28 names were listed as accused, including senior IPS officers Hemant Nimbalkar, Ajay Hilori, former deputy superintendent of police (CID) EB Sridhara, inspector and station house officer of the Commercial Street Police Station M Ramesh, and sub-inspector of the station P Gowrishankar. One of the accused former Bengal Urban DC Vijay Shankar died in June 2020, allegedly by suicide.
