Karnataka: 7 IMA directors arrested, complaints cross 20,000

BENGALURU: Seven directors of I Monetary Advisory (IMA) Group were arrested on Wednesday in connection with the Ponzi scheme that has ripped off over 20,000 people across the state of hundreds of crores of rupees.
The arrests came as the Karnataka government appointed deputy inspector general of police BR Ravikanthe Gowda as the head of the 11-member Special Investigation Team to probe the alleged scam. The number of investors who lodged complaints on Wednesday crossed 20,000. Several investors demanded that the matter should be referred to the Enforcement Directorate.
IMA founder Mohammed Mansoor Khan remained elusive. The arrested directors are Nizamuddin, Nasir Hussain, Naveed Ahmed, Arshad Khan, Wasim, Ansar Pasha and Dada Peer. Police said they recovered loads of documents from the IMA offices on Lady Curzon Road in Shivajinagar and Jayanagar. Most of the arrested directors had completed only Class 10 or 12.
Muslim politicians — Shivajinagar MLA R Roshan Baig and minority welfare minister BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan — said they didn’t promote IMA or were part of the agency. Baig said he was being implicated because he raised his voice against the Congress high command. Zameer said his transactions with IMA were legitimate.
Police sources confirmed that a woman police sub-inspector who had invested Rs 7 lakh in the IMA Group has been hospitalized in Bengaluru after she panicked over the fate of her money and plunged into depression.