BENGALURU: The forensic report on a hard disk which contained information about the financial transactions of I Monetary Advisory (IMA), accessed by TNIE, has revealed some shocking facts. The report, believed to have been handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which is now probing the case, reveals that the disk has been tampered with, perhaps deliberately, to shield some top politicians, bureaucrats and police officers.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT), which was earlier investigating the IMA Jewels case, had raided the house of its founder Mohammed Mansoor Khan’s fourth wife in June, just a few days after he fled the country, and seized the hard disk. It was then sent for tests at the Forensic Science Laboratory in Bengaluru.
“The tests show some kind of tampering in the hard disk. This means that there could be some addition or deletion of content and it will lose its value as evidence,” said a highly placed source. The report is yet to be submitted to the court by the CBI.
When asked about the report, a senior SIT officer said they are aware of the FSL submitting it, but declined to comment further. On being prodded about the tampering of the hard disk, the officer defended the SIT saying, “There is no chance that it was tampered with. Even if it was, it must have happened before we got it. The timestamp will establish if it was tampered.”
SIT officers can be questioned too: Ex-cop
Experts from FSL agreed that the time stamp will reveal when the disk was tampered with, and added that it will be in their report. When contacted, FSL Director Abhinav Khare declined to comment on the issue. “I do not want to either deny or accept what’s in the report,” he said.
“The CBI investigation can easily prove when the disk was tampered with, based on the time stamp. If the investigating authorities have any suspicion, then the SIT officers can be questioned too,” a retired police officer said. It may be recalled that during his interrogation, Mansoor Khan had revealed the names of several politicians and bureaucrats who had allegedly received kickbacks from him.
CBI quizzes senior cops
The CBI on Saturday questioned Inspector General of Police Hemanth Nimbalkar and IPS officer Ajay Hilori over giving a clean chit to the functioning of IMA. It was alleged that Nimbalkar, who was then the officer in charge in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Economic Offences probing the case, had given a clean chit to Mansoor Khan and his group entities on January 18, 2019 and had submitted a reported to the district deputy commissioner.
A PIL filed in the High Court had questioned the report and had even accused Nimbalkar of helping Khan.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Ajay Hilori is learnt to have produced documents and correspondence letters to the CBI, explaining the circumstances that led to no action being taken against IMA.
Meanwhile, the CBI custody of Mansoor Khan and one of the directors, Naveed Ahmed, will end on Tuesday and they will be produced before the CBI special court.