BENGALURU: A special court in the city refused to discharge four directors of I Monetary Advisory Pvt Ltd (IMA) in relation to a multi-crore Ponzi scam, saying it is a definite case for trial.
The court noted that deposits of crores of rupees collected by IMA from the general public were diverted to purchase properties. It clearly indicates that the accused had played a specific overt act towards mobilising the funds, the court said.
Referring to the chargesheet filed by the CBI under provisions of IPC and Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments Act, Judge of the Special Court for the trial of criminal cases against sitting and former MPs/MLAs, Santhosh Gajanan Bhat, dismissed four separate applications filed by the accused on the ground that there is a strong prima facie case against them and there are sufficient grounds to frame charges.
Those who moved the application are: Shadab Akbar Khan, accused No. 9, Fuzail Ahmed, accused No. 11, Mohammed Idris, accused No. 12, and Usman Abraize, accused No. 13. They filed the discharge application, contending that there are no prima facie materials against them and a false allegation has been levelled.
They claimed that they only worked as employees for a salary. But the court noted that the grounds on which the accused are seeking discharge do not hold water, and there are no materials to entertain their applications.
The CBI contended that the accused created an image that the kingpin of the entire scam, Mohammed Mansoor Khan, accused No. 1, had expertise in bullion trading. They had abetted the collection of funds and propagated that Khan was investing the investors’ money in bullion trading and gaining huge profits, which was to be termed as ‘Halal Money’. The profits earned by him would be shared with investors on a monthly plan, marriage plan, education plan, so on.
But IMA could not keep its promise of paying a high percentage of returns to its depositors who had deposited their money in its entities and diverted the funds to purchase properties, the CBI alleged.