ED raids ex-Karnataka ministers Baig, Zameer Ahmed Khan's premises in IMA scam

Bengaluru: Sleuths of Enforcement Directorate on Thursday raided the houses and offices of Congress MLA from Chamarajpet B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan and former minister, R. Roshan Baig in Bengaluru in connection with their alleged involvement in multi-crore IMA ponzy scam.

Nearly 100 sleuths of the ED conducted raids on multiple locations owned by Khan and Baig.

Khan was a minister in JD(S)-BJP coalition government in 2006-2008 and now is a staunch supporter of Leader of Opposition, Siddaramaiah in the state. Whereas Baig was a minister in the Congress-JD(S) government but later he quit the party.

This is a first raid by the ED officials on the four-time legislator from Champarajepet Zameer Ahmed Khan's premises after his name cropped up in the scam in July 2019 and even he had mentioned in asset declarations form submitted to the Election Commission that he borrowed loan from IMA and its founder.

While Baig has been charge sheeted, arrested and even granted bail in the case by the CBI already, Khan was being questioned by multiple agencies, including the ED, for a property transaction with IMA founder Mohammed Mansoor Khan, but he has not been charged by any agency till date.

The Competent Authority in IMA and other scams of Karnataka on July 6 has already attached around 20 movable and immovable properties belonging to Baig, estimated to be worth over Rs 15 crore.

The search operations are underway at various premises connected with Baig, including his two residences in Shivajinagar, and at the Chamarajpet residence of Khan apart from offices of National Travels, a firm he owns, and other properties linked to him.

Sources revealed that in all the locations the officials informed the local police about the raids after which security was deployed in these areas.

The officials are verifying property documents, business transactions at National Travels and other commercial activities.

Khan is known to have sold one of his properties on Serpentine Road of Richmond Town, spread over 14,924 sq ft for Rs 9.38 crore to IMA founder Mohammed Mansoor Khan and this transaction was declared in his 2018 poll affidavit.

Though he had consistently denied any other links to the IMA and its founder since the controversy broke out and he was questioned by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Karnataka, the CBI and the ED in connection with the case.

Bengaluru headquartered I Monetary Advisory (IMA), an investment company founded by Mohammed Mansoor Khan, who is the main accused in the ponzy scam under the umbrella of the IMA Group, had diversified into other businesses including jewellery (with the name IMA Jewels a.k.a IMA Jewellers), real estate (IMA Builders and Developers founded in 2017), bullion trading (IMA Bullion and Trading in 2014, IMA Bullion in 2015 and IMA Gold), groceries (Mulberry Greens), pharmacy (Frontline Pharma), hospitals (Frontline Multispeciality Hospital), and allegedly duped over 45,000 people across Karnataka.

In his video message posted prior to being arrested by the ED officials in New Delhi in July 2019, he had specifically named Khan and Baig's name alleging that they were in connivance with him to commit a scam of such magnitude.

Prior to this high profile arrest, over 25,000 complaints were filed against the company and its founder, demanding that their money be returned.