BENGALURU: Mohammed Mansoor Khan, the alleged kingpin in the multi-crore I Monetary Advisory (IMA) Jewels fraud, has in the past five days in custody, been dropping names of several politicians, history-sheeters, bureaucrats and police officers too. He’s talking of transactions of several crores of rupees between his company and these people, but there is little evidence to corroborate whatever he is stating, say police officers investigating the case.
“The math is not matching. Every day, he gives new names, and talks of crores of rupees, and we are trying to investigate and find evidence to corroborate his statement,” said a senior officer of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), investigating the fraud.In his statement, Mansoor reportedly said that he gave Rs 1 crore a month to history-sheeter Mahim for the past 15 months, following which the SIT team called the latter for questioning.
Mahim allegedly told police that it was not true and agreed to cooperate with the investigation. He reportedly told police that if he had taken Rs 1 crore a month, he should have been a crorepati by now.
A team of SIT officers even raided Mahim’s residence on Monday to verify whether Mansoor’s statements were true, and found no evidence of any money. “We are interrogating him. It’s a long process and wherever there is evidence, we are not letting off anybody. We will make sure things come out in the open,” said Girish S, SIT officer.
Meanwhile, another officer, on condition of anonymity, stated that Mansoor had claimed that most of the investments happened in 2016, after demonetisation. He said that several people, including some well-known businessmen and politicians, invested in his company.
“We have been putting together a long list of names who he claims have invested in his company. We will question them if we find any evidence,” said the officer.The SIT is also expecting the Enforcement Directorate to send it information revealed by Mansoor when he was in their custody, so it has more authentic details about financial transactions involving politicians and bureaucrats.
Mansoor used gold biscuits to lure investors
The SIT probing the IMA multi-crore fraud case has found that prime accused and founder Mohammed Mansoor Khan would show duplicate gold biscuits to investors to build their trust. SIT sleuths seized 5,880 duplicate gold ingots hidden beneath a swimming pool, and have arrested Mansoor’s associate, Wasim.
SIT officials said they learnt that Khan lured investors by showing them a heap of duplicate gold biscuits. Based on that, he was questioned further, and admitted that he had made duplicate gold biscuits using gold polish and showed them to investors, to gain their trust. He also revealed that before he fled to Dubai, he had concealed the duplicate gold biscuits beneath the swimming pool at his residence in Richmond Town. “5,880 duplicate gold biscuits, weighing 303 kg, were seized,” police added.
WhatsApp calls
Interestingly, police say that even Mansoor’s call records give very few details to nail the people he is claiming to have blackmailed or threatened, and taken money from him. Mansoor intelligently used WhatsApp to make calls and in most of the cases, fixed appointments and met people himself, which also ruled out the option of getting a money trail to match the mobile towers of two individuals’ phones. “For instance, we could establish contact with the builder and bureaucrat in question. Location details given by one of the directors matched the alleged accused and we could make arrests. But in many cases, money was given in cash, and he met investors in person and made WhatApp calls,” said a source.
BAIG TRYING FOR BAIL?
Disqualified Congress MLA Roshan Baig, who Mansoor Khan alleged had taken Rs 400 crore from him, missed meeting SIT sleuths again on Tuesday. He was given a strict warning and asked to compulsorily be present on August 16. Baig was summoned to “appear before the SIT on Tuesday but gave health reasons and missed meeting us. We have given the next notice to appear on August 16”, Girish S confirmed. Sources said that Baig has been trying to get anticipatory bail and also reportedly met the CM several times.