Bengaluru: The Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) on Monday conducted search operations at the properties belonging to former Home minister, R. Roshan Baig in Bengaluru.
The CBI arrested Baig on Sunday after grilling him for more than 10 hours in connection with his alleged links in multi-crore IMA-ponzi scheme. He is remanded 14-day judicial custody by the court and is lodged in Parappana Agrahara Central jail on the outskirts of Bengaluru.
Karnataka-based I -Monetary Advisors (IMA), an investment firm purportedly run in compliance with Islamic banking rules, collapsed in May last year after it could not repay either the deposits or dividends on the deposits it had illegally accepted.
IMA co-founder Mohammed Mansoor Khan at the time of his arrest had alleged that Baig had cheated him of Rs 400 crore and forced him to gift expensive cars and jewellery. He had also named some other government officers.
A team of CBI officials from Delhi raided Baig’s house in Cole’s Park in Frazer Town since 6.30 am on Monday, sources said.
The CBI team is at present conducting searches at Baig’s residence on a suspicion that he possessed disproportionate assets.
Since the scam broke, Baig had been publically rejecting the charge and claimed that except for some donations to Haj facilitation centres, he had not accepted any money.
Over 51,500 depositors are said to have lost approximately Rs 2,500 crore collected by IMA and its subsidiaries in the ponzi scheme.
Sources said that the CBI officials are looking for undisclosed income and the search operation on Monday was to recover documents and data from Baig’s residence.
During investigations in mid 2019, police found documents in which a prime accused in IMA scam Khan had recorded payments made to politicians, policemen, and government officials. It showed Baig as a key recipient of funds.
The source said that CBI is likely to attach Roshan Baig’s properties in order to repay the money to investors as Mansoor Khan allegedly claimed that he was forced to pay crores of rupees to Roshan Baig in order to keep the business going.
Khan who had fled the country but was arrested and brought back from Dubai in July 2019 by the Bengaluru police crime branch.
Khan had released a video while he was in hiding, he had claimed that several state politicians and officials had coerced him into paying bribes, leading to the downfall of IMA.
And one of them, who he claimed had received nearly Rs 400 crore, was Baig, the then Congress MLA from Shivajinagar constituency in central Bengaluru.
In 2019, the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which was probing the case, had detained Baig after his name cropped up in the case. The prime accused, Mohammed Mansoor Khan, had in a video alleged that Roshan Baig had extorted money from him.
After the video was uploaded on YouTube, Baig was detained by the SIT as he had tried to board a private charter plane to a foreign country.
The SIT had alleged that Baig was trying to flee the country. When the scam broke out in 2019, the then Revenue Minister R. V. Deshpande had said that Baig had introduced him to Mansoor Khan in July that year, asking for favours to not investigate the company’s dealings as suggested by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Baig is a seven-time MLA of the Shivajinagar constituency, which is at the heart of Bengaluru city. Baig, was denied a BJP ticket for the bypolls held for the Shivajinagar constituency in December 2019 on account of his links to the IMA scam.
Baig who began his political career in Janata parivar as home minister of state and is a contemprorary to Leader of the opposition Siddaramiah. Soon after a stint as minister in Janata Parivar, he joined Congress party in early 90’s and since them remained with Congress until he quit the party on an acrimonious note after his tussel with Siddarmaiha and then Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Dinesh Gundu Rao in 2019.
It may be recalled Baig was among the 17 MLAs of the erstwhile JDS)-Congress coalition government, who resigned and paved the way for the formation of the current B. S. Yediyurappa-led government in the state.
