JOIN USThe state government has attached Rs 35 crore worth of properties belonging to I Monetary Advisory (IMA), the so-called Halal investment company that went bust three months ago, Revenue Minister R Ashoka said on Wednesday.
The properties include 17 immovable assets worth Rs 21.73 crore, Rs 8.85 crore in the form of demand drafts, Rs 2.85 crore in cash, gold and silver articles worth Rs 91.57 lakh and vehicles worth Rs 59 lakh. All the properties, Ashoka said, are located in BBMP limits and the decision to attach them is aimed at safeguarding the interests of investors.
To a question, Ashoka said that the properties attached by the Revenue Department were different from those attached by the Enforcement Directorate. The ED attached 20 properties worth Rs 209 crore in June this year.
Officials investigating the scam had also unearthed 5,880 fake gold biscuits, which have been attached, too. The gold-coated biscuits weigh 303 kg and are estimated to be worth just Rs 1.5 lakh.
The IMA Group was founded by Mohammed Mansoor Khan, who is now in jail. The company is suspected to have cheated around 50,000 investors. The scam came to the fore on June 10, two days after Khan fled the country. He was brought back from Dubai the next month.
The then chief minister H D Kumaraswamy formed a Special Investigation Team to probe the scam, even as the ED conducted parallel investigations. But after the BJP came to power in the state, the case was handed over to the CBI. Politicians, bureaucrats and police officers are allegedly involved in the scam and have been questioned by the investigating agencies.