SIT arrests official who allegedly took bribe for giving clean chit to IMA

The Special Investigation Team probing the I Monetary Advisory (IMA) ponzi scam arrested Assistant Commissioner of Bengaluru North sub-division LC Nagaraj on Friday after it found that he had taken a bribe from the firm.

“The SIT on Friday arrested LC Nagaraj Assistant Commissioner, North sub-division, in the IMA case, on charges of receiving a bribe of Rs 4.5 crore,” said S Girish, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), who is the investigating officer.

In a note, the SIT said that Nagaraj, who was tasked with looking into IMA after the Reserve Bank of India raised concerns about the firm, had taken the bribe to submit a report favouring it.

“Without undertaking a proper investigation into IMA and hiding the actual situation in the company, Nagaraj submitted a report favouring Mohammed Mansoor Khan. For this, he received a bribe of Rs 4.5 crore,” the SIT said.

Nagaraj had issued a public notice in November inviting complaints from the company’s investors, but had claimed earlier that nobody had come forward.

Also read: SIT requests red corner notice against IMA chief

So far, the police have received around 42,000 complaints from investors, since Khan absconded on June 7, sparking panic among investors looking to withdraw their money from the Islamic investment company. The company is accused of cheating investors to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore.

Late last month Khan uploaded a video addressed to the Bengaluru police commissioner, Alok Kumar, on YouTube where he expressed his desire to return to India.

Senior Congress leaders’ names have cropped up during the course of the investigation as well. Khan had released an audio clip in which he claimed that Congress MLA Roshan Baig had not returned Rs 400 crore to the company.

As part of a separate investigation the Enforcement Directorate had summoned Karnataka’s minority affairs minister Zameer Ahmed Khan over his business associations with Mansoor Khan.