BENGALURU: The appointment of IPS officer Hemanth Nimbalkar as the Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB) chief, who had earlier given a clean chit to the controversial I Monetory Advisory (IMA) group, has raised many eyebrows.
The IMA ponzi scam is one of the biggest one to rock the state and over 50,000 people lost their hard earned money. IMA Managing Director Mohammad Mansoor Khan had lured investors, mostly Muslims, by offering an investment scheme that appeared to follow Islamic precepts and provided lucrative returns.
According to the Special Investigation Team the investors have been duped of over Rs 4,000 crore, and Mansoor Khan and his family have fled abroad before the scam broke out.
In this backdrop it is baffling how a senior cop could give clean chit to such a controversial firm, sources said. Following a warning sounded by RBI against IMA’s functioning, the state police had directed the CID to investigate the matter and submit a report.
The probe team was headed by Nimbalkar and it gave the company a clean chit. The police report had stated that based on the documents and evidences collected, IMA and its group entities were not financial institutions, and its investors had invested accordingly.
The report had also stated that the investigation could not find any concrete evidence that IMA had cheated investors by promising lucrative returns. Even the balance sheet of Mansoor Khan and Income Tax returns of the company was verified and no irregularities were found, Nimbalkar had stated in his report.
Meanwhile, it is also reported that Nimbalkar’s wife Anjali, who is a Congress MLA from Khanapur in Belagavi, is taking advantage of current political crisis in the state to safeguard Hemanth’s controversial role in the IMA scam. She has reportedly threatening to resign and as a bargain ensured that her husband got a ‘plum’ post.
