BENGALURU: The Karnataka government has accorded sanction to the CBI for the prosecution of two senior IPS officers and three other police personnel in the I-Monetary Advisory (IMA) multi-crore scam. The IMA has allegedly duped thousands of people in the name of ‘Halal’ investment.In its order on September 9, the government gave its nod for the prosecution of Hemant Nimbalkar, the then IGP, Economic Offences, CID, and Ajay Hilori, the then DCP (Bengaluru East Division). Nimbalkar is now serving as Additional Commissioner of Police (Administration), Bengaluru City, while Hilori is posted as SP, KSRP.
Nimbalkar favoured IMA MD, says order
The three others whose prosecution was cleared in a separate order on September 11 are E B Sridhar, the then CID DySP; M Ramesh, the then police inspector of Commercial Street police station and P Gowrishankar, who was subinspector at Commercial Street station then. The order states that IGP Hemant Nimbalkar showed undue interest to favour Mohammed Mansoor Khan, the MD of IMA, and he wanted to protect the activities of Khan and save him from any action by the government. “Nimbalkar, in turn, received favours from Khan in cash and kind as per the information collected during the investigation,” the order stated.
As per the order, Ajay Hilori demanded and accepted illegal gratification on various occasions from Khan through Nijamuddin, Director and Operational Manager, IMA, for favouring the company by delaying the report to RBI and for not taking action against IMA on various complaints in connivance with other public servants. “Further, he (Hilori) also accepted furniture and interior items for his house from IMA when the matter was pending with him by misusing his official position,” the order read.
The sanction is given to prosecute the officers for offences punishable under section 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) of the IPC and under section 9 of Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishment (KPIDFE) Act 2004. The nod is given under section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code and also under section 170 of the Karnataka Police Act.
When the government consulted the Law Department before according sanction, the Advocate General opined, “The CID seems to have taken a bizarre and strange stand that since the money was classified as ‘investment’ and not termed as ‘deposit’, the same did not attract the provisions of KPID Act. Such a hair-splitting interpretation clearly shows intent to favour the accused. The materials placed on record clearly indicate the role played by each of the accused.”