BENGALURU: The Karnataka government on Wednesday constituted a Special Investigation Team headed by a DIG rank officer to probe the alleged fraud involving IMA Jewels, an Islamic Investment firm. The team is headed by B R Ravikanthe Gowda, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Fire Force) including ten other officers including Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) S Girish.
The Special Investigation Teams or SIT are a specialized team of officers in Indian law enforcement consisting of personnel trained to investigate serious crimes. The SIT is formed when the existing investigative agencies are not perceived to be able to conduct a proper investigation in the matter. The sole purpose of SIT is to conduct free and fair investigation and bring the culprit to justice. SIT on any case can be formed by the Supreme Court of India, Central as well as state government.
Meanwhile, the number of complaints in Bengaluru alone has swelled up to 13,000. The SIT team has already swung into action and has been interrogating six directors of the company who are said to have surrendered before the police. The directors Nasir Hussain, Naveed Ahmed Nattamkar, Nizammuddin Azeemuddin, Afshan Tabassum, Afsar Pasha and Arshad Khan, who went absconding immediately after the audio release, are being questioned by the police. However, the Managing director Mansoor Khan is still absconding and is said to be in UAE.
After the IMA scam, investors from several such companies in Bengaluru, which were collecting money in the name of 'halaal' investments have said to be panicky and are allegedly rushing to their directors. One such case was found in Jayanagar and Chennamanakere Acchukattu where those whose payments were delayed went to the offices of such companies and also have threatened to file FIRs.
SIT TEAM CONSISTS OF:
BR Ravikanthe Gowda, S Girish-DCP, Balaraju-ACP, K Ravishankar, Raja Imam Kasim-DySp, Abdul Khadar-DySP, C R Geetha-DySP, L Y Rajesh-Inspector, Anjan Kumar-Inspector, N Thanveer Ahmed-Inspector, BK Shekhar-Inspector.