DUBAI: India’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the multi-million dollar I-Monetary Advisory (IMA) scam said the compay’s fugitive founder and owner Mohammad Mansoor Khan will be brought back to India.
Khan fled to the UAE on June 8 and is believed to be holed up in Ras Al Khaimah.
SIT chief Ravikanthe Gowda said they know where Khan is hiding, adding that he will be brought back "soon".
Interpol
Last week, the International Police (Interpol) issued a blue-corner notice against Khan, accused of defrauding thousands of Indians — including many based in the UAE.
A blue-corner notice is an inquiry notice issued to locate, identify or obtain information on a person of interest in a criminal investigation.
Unlike a red corner notice, it doesn’t seek arrest of a wanted person to face extradition or other lawful action.
On Monday, SIT carried out yet another raid on IMA’s business establishments in Bengaluru where the company is headquartered. Around 41 kg jewellery and a pistol with 50 bullets were recovered during the search operation.
The raid came shortly after Khan released a YouTube video saying he was ready to return to India help in the investigations, but feared being killed.
In a previous raid, conducted at the house of Khan’s third divorced wife, SIT found 43 kg gold, 5,864 carat of diamond and 520 kg of silver.
The probe team said it has also identified nearly 30 immovable properties, including commercial buildings, believed to be owned by Khan.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy said his government would bring to book the perpetrators of the Ponzi scheme fraud, irrespective of how influential they were.
So far, nearly 40,000 police complaints have been filed against IMA which allegedly disguised a suspected Ponzi scheme as a halal investment programme and sought investments from people, almost all of them Muslims.
Khan has dismissed the allegations and instead blamed corrupt bureaucrats and politicians for the company’s collapse.
Bengaluru police said they will offer full protection to Mansoor if he returns to the city and surrenders.
IMA investors in the UAE said they are keeping their fingers crossed.
“All I want is my money. But I guess it’s not going to be easy,” said an Abu Dhabi-based Indian expat who invested Dh450,000 in the company. Another Indian expat who pegged his losses at Dh 250,000 said he’s devastated. “It was my life’s savings and now it’s all gone,”
