Family investors seen outside IMA Jewels at Shivajinagar in Bengaluru. (Photo | Pandarinath B, EPS)
BENGALURU: Two Good Samaritans from Bengaluru have come forward to help the 16-year-old girl from Vellore, who had dreams of becoming a Chartered Accountant but had to quit her studies after her mother lost money in the I Monetary Advisory (IMA) scam. The New Indian Express had published a report titled “16-year-old’s dream of becoming CA gets crushed by IMA scam” on June 22.
“After the newspaper wrote about our plight, I wondered if anyone would really help us. But only three days later, I received a call offering support,” said the girl’s mother Megnaz Begum. The joy of her daughter Alsia Anjum knew no bounds when an unknown person on the phone asked her academic records and told her to start going to school. “I will immediately deposit Rs 5,000 to your mother’s account. You pay this month’s fee and continue to study,” G A Sunder, proprietor of a CA firm in the city, told Arshiya. An amount of Rs 5k was even credited to the account.
When contacted, Sunder told The New Indian Express: “I spoke to the girl and realised that she knew quite a bit about the CA course despite being in Class 12.” “I asked her to ensure good marks, and not to bother about her education fee. I will guide her till she achieves her dream,” he said.
Meanwhile, another 76-year-old retired physicist from US has also assured to help her financially so that she can buy her books and pay the school fee. “I have asked her to get an estimate of the expenses from the school, and I will send the money to the school directly,” said C Narayanan, a resident of JP Nagar.
“I am glad that I can at least start going to school again. I want to pass my 12th with good score and later wish to become a CA. I thank TNIE for helping me,” said Alsia, who had scored 89 per cent in her Standard 10th exams.
Meanwhile, Mehnaz Begum, who has started to work as a maid in her hometown Vellore to fund her daughter’s education, is hopeful that police will soon nab Mansoor Khan, founder of the IMA firm, which cheated 45,000 people of crores of money. 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. But last November, her friends advised her to invest in the IMA Jewels and she did that, unmindful of the consequences that were in store for her. Thousands of people from Karnataka and neighbouring states have been cheated by the firm.
