Moulvi, Urdu teacher charged in IMA scam

CBI’s second charge sheet mentions bunker of gold

Haneef Afsar Azeezi

Khamarulla Jamal

The CBI has charged a Muslim religious figure and an Urdu teacher in the multi-crore IMA scam, which allegedly duped lakhs of people by promising higher returns on their investments, officials said.

The agency named Mohammed Haneef Afsar Azeezi and Khamarullah Jamal in a supplementary charge sheet filed before a Bengaluru court. It charged them under IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy and cheating for luring people to invest in IMA schemes promoted by Mohammed Mansoor Khan, the company’s founder who is now in jail.

“We have filed a second charge sheet in the IMA case,” CBI spokesperson Nitin Wakankar said here.

The CBI alleged that Haneef, an Imam at Masjid-e-Beoparian in Shivajinagar, and Jamal, an Urdu teacher from Malur village in Kolar district, propagated IMA schemes among their followers.

During the investigation, it surfaced that Haneef received lakhs of rupees in remuneration from the IMA, which he later invested in a property which has now been attached by a competent authority under the Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments (KPID) Act, the officials said.

The CBI alleged that Jamal also received payments from the IMA. He had built a bunker in his farmhouse in which he kept jewellery and cash belonging to the company. The bunker was under round-the-clock security of private bouncers who were allegedly paid by the IMA, the agency claimed.

The scam had triggered ripples in the Karnataka political circles when Khan escaped the country, leaving behind a video message that he was committing suicide because of “corruption in the state and central governments”. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate upon his return to Delhi on July 19.

The CBI took over the investigation on August 30 on the request of the Karnataka government.

In the first charge sheet, the agency named Khan and 19 others — seven company directors, five members, an auditor, a private person and five private group companies — for alleged criminal conspiracy and cheating among additional charges under the IPC.