5 directors of IMA co-op held over ill-gotten licence

Five directors of IMA Credit Cooperative Society were arrested on Friday for concealing, misleading and manipulating information so as to renew the company's licence every year.

Shadab Ahmed, 28, Israr Ahmed, 32, Fuzail Ahmed, 30, Mohammed Idrees, 30, and Usman Abrez, 33, were arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which said it found them culpable of not furnishing information to the RCS about the number of investors, the amount of their investment and other details about the company's schemes. Even without furnishing these details, the directors managed to renew the licence for running the schemes, an SIT official said. The number of arrests in the IMA scam has now reached 13.

Police believe RCS officials worked in collusion with the suspects to renew the licence every year and are in the process of identifying them.

The SIT had on Thursday raided the IMA Jewels store on Lady Curzon road and seized Rs 20 crore worth of ornaments kept in safes and lockers. The seized jewellery included 30 kg of gold worth Rs 8.5 crore, 2,627-carat diamonds worth Rs 9.5 crore and 450 kg of silver worth Rs 2 crore. The SIT also seized documents about the schemes and investments.

On Friday, SIT sleuths raided the houses of IMA founder Mohammed Mansoor Khan's relatives and workers in Coles Park in eastern Bengaluru. But the SIT is yet to disclose details of the assets seized there, if any.