BENGALURU: This 16-year-old dreamed of becoming a chartered accountant. However, the I Monetary Advisory scam put an end to it. Alsia Anjum hails from Vellore. Her mother Mehnaz Begum had invested Rs 4 lakh in the company. She lost her husband a year before and she sold the only property she had in Vellore to pay for Alsia’s education. With the Rs 6 lakh she got from that, she leased a house for Rs 2 lakh. She kept the remaining money in the bank.
“It was in November that my friends told me about IMA and that it had very good halaal investment plans which would would help me earn some money. I trusted them and got to know that I would earn Rs 10,000 per month and I was very happy,” Mehnaz told The New Indian Express.
She invested the remaining money and would receive Rs 10,000 every month before the 10th. She was happy as the money was sufficient for her daughter’s education and her father’s treatment, as he suffers from dementia.“In April, the payments did not come and after repeated calls they gave me only Rs 4,000. They told me that due to elections there was a delay and they would pay the rest soon,” she said.
However, a day before the company’s founder Mohammed Mansoor Khan fled the country, she realised that she had been cheated. Now, with no money left Mehnaz, has asked her daughter to drop out of school as she cannot afford to pay her fees.
“I can’t tell you how helpless I feel. I cannot say no to my mother’s demand as I know the situation. On the other hand, I know how I had to struggle to reach to this level,” says a tearful Alsia, who scored 89 per cent in her standard 10 exams.