BENGALURU: The High Court on Tuesday asked the state government to appoint a senior officer of a higher ranking than that of deputy commissioner as the competent authority under the Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments (KPID) Act, 2004, to protect the interest of depositors in the IMA case.
The division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice H T Narendra Prasad said it would issue directions on Wednesday if the competent authority was not appointed.
The court also asked the government advocate to check whether the state had agreed to hand over all ponzi scam cases to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the IMA scam. Referring to a writ petition filed in 2018 seeking directions to ponzi companies, the court orally observed that these things would not have happened had the police initiated action in 2018 itself.
The court observed that somebody should have examined credentials before appointing the then deputy commissioner as the competent authority on June 25, 2019, under the KPID Act, to look into the complaints against ponzi companies, as he was arrested few days after his appointment for being allegedly involved in the scam.
The counsel of Enforcement Directorate informed the court that they had taken immediate action against IMA. When the court asked how many FIRs were registered and what steps had been taken, the government advocate furnished details of seven FIRs registered.