Bengaluru : The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday raided properties of former Karnataka ministers Roshan Baig and ZA Zameer Ahmed Khan in connection with the multi-crore I Monetary Advisory (IMA) ponzi scam.
The raids started early morning at their homes and offices. As many as 40-odd officials are conducting the raids, sources said.
The IMA and its units had allegedly dispossessed thousands of investors and depositors of nearly Rs 4,000 crore.
The CBI had arrested Baig in November 2020 after prolonged interrogations after IMA’s Managing Director Mohammed Mansoor Khan had alleged that Baig had arm-twisted and taken Rs 400 crore from him and was refusing to return the money. The allegation was made in an audio clip that had gone viral. Since then, the suspended Congressman has been on the radar of the investigating authorities.
Even Khan alleged that Baig had taken about Rs 400 crore from him, a charge rejected outright by the latter. Mansoor Khan had fled from Bengaluru and was later traced in Dubai on June 9.
Baig had harboured deep disappointment against the erstwhile Congress-JD(S) coalition government for ignoring him and began to hurl allegations against the Congress state leaders for not giving a ministerial berth in the cabinet.
He had launched a scathing attack on Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal where he called him a ‘buffoon’. Baig had resigned from his assembly seat and tried his luck to join the BJP, but the saffron party denied him entry and the ticket for the by-polls held last December.
The investigations into the IMA Scam has so far led to suicide by a senior IAS office BM Vijayashankar who was charged with bribery in the scam in exchange for a clean chit to the company in an internal probe. The Karnataka government had prosecuted two senior IPS officers Hemanth Nimbalkar and Ajay Hilori and suspended other three police personnel.
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