IMA ponzi scam: CBI files charge sheet against 2 Karnataka govt officials

Bengaluru: The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a charge sheet against former assistant commissioner of Bengaluru urban district L C Nagaraj and ex-village accountant Manjunath in connection with the multi-crore IMA ponzi scheme case, in which thousands of depositors were allegedly duped.

“Last week we filed the charge sheet in the IMA case against L C Nagaraj and Manjunath at a CBI special court in
Bengaluru,” a CBI official told PTI on Monday.

The case pertains to swindling over one lakh investors to the tune of Rs 4,000 crores, the CBI official added.

According to him, Nagaraj had allegedly taken Rs 4.5 crore from the IMA director Mohammad Mansoor Khan to give him a clean chit whereas Manjunath had taken a bribe of Rs 10 lakh to arrange a meeting between Khan and Nagaraj.

Another accused in the case B M Vijay Shankar, the then deputy commissioner, allegedly committed suicide at his
residence on June 24 night. It is alleged that Shankar, Nagaraj and Manjunath had submitted a false report to the government giving the IMA operators a clean chit ignoring the RBI flagging concerns and serious complaints against the ponzi scheme.

Promising high returns, Khan started the scheme in 2013.  The case came to light in June 2019 when Khan fled to Dubai alleging that some government officers and others were involved in swindling the IMA fund.  Khan was arrested on July 19 last year on his arrival in New Delhi.

So far, about 25 people have been arrested including Mansoor Khan, the other 12 directors, and a few beneficiaries of the scheme.