7 directors held, grilled in Bengaluru's ponzi scam

Seven directors of the city-based IMA Jewels were arrested and are being grilled by the Special Investigation Team to know their alleged role in the multi-crore ponzi scam operated by its owner Mohammed Mansoor Khan, police said on Thursday.

"On being warned against delaying the inevitable, the directors turned up at the city police commissioner's office and surrendered on Wednesday. They were arrested and produced in a local court for our custody to interrogate them as Khan is still at large," Deputy Commissioner of Police (central) Rahul Kumar told reporters.

The accused directors -- Anwar Pasha, Arshad Khan, Dada Peer, Naveed Ahmed, Nazir Hussain, Nizamuddin and Waseem -- were remanded in 10-day police custody to unearth the scam, which swindled the hard-earned savings of thousands of investors from across the state.

"As the case is being investigated by the SIT, its head B.R. Ravikanth Gowda is interrogating the accused on what went wrong leading to the IMA (I Monetary Advisory) go bust and Khan fleeing the country last week," said Kumar.

IMA's chartered account Iqbal Khan was also arrested on early Thursday after the directors disclosed his name and his alleged role in the scam that has rocked the state and the minority community as majority of investors and depositors in its ponzi schemes are lower and middle class Muslims.

Though the police launched a massive hunt for Khan, he is reported to have fled the country after Eid on June 5 along with his family, and huge quantity of gold ornaments, silver jewellery, diamonds and unspecified amount of cash from his posh showroom in the city's centre.

"We are on the lookout for Khan and will seek Interpol's help through the Union home ministry to extradite him to India after ascertaining in which country he is hiding," said Kumar.

The ponzi scam came to light on June 10 when the IMA showroom did not open for business after a week-long closure for Eid-ul-Fitr at the end of Ramzan last week and its Managing Director (Khan) reportedly fled to Dubai or Saudi Arabia to escape the wrath of his investors as their savings are lost.

The SIT team also raided IMA's head office and its main showroom and seized volumes of documents related to properties, assets, collaterals pledged by investors and depositors and bank accounts for investigation.

About 20,000 investors have filed a complaint with the local police station, enclosing a photocopy of documents, including passbooks showing their investments in the company.

The SIT has directed the banks to freeze the accounts of the company, Khan and his relatives to prevent any transaction.

--IANS

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