IAS officer Shankar had previously served as the Deputy Commissioner of Bengaluru Urban district. The CBI had accused BM Vijay Shankar of giving a clean chit to key accused Mansoor Khan for a bribe of Rs 1.5 crore. He had also served jail time in the scam.
Two weeks ago, the CBI had sought sanction from the Karnataka government to prosecute Vijay Shankar and two others in connection with the IMA Ponzi scheme, in which lakhs of people were duped after promising high returns.
Apart from BM Vijay Shankar, the CBI was also probing then assistant commissioner of Bengaluru North Taluk LC Nagaraj and village accountant Manjunath N.
When the Karnataka government received complaints about the shady activities of the I-Monetary Advisory (IMA) jewels, it directed the district authorities to probe it.
LC Nagaraj prepared a report stating that there was nothing wrong with the IMA investment firm and gave a clean chit to Mohammed Mansoor Khan, who operated the Ponzi scheme.
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Shankar, too, accepted the report and without verifying forwarded it to the state government.
Manjunath, the village accountant, allegedly acted as a middleman in this deal and accepted around Rs 1.5 crore as bribe from a builder
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[splco_spoiler title=”WHAT IS THE IMA JEWELS SCAM ” icon=”arrow-circle-2″]According to the CBI sources, the size of the scam is of Rs 4,000 crore where more than a lakh people have been duped. The case surfaced in mid-2019 when Mansoor Khan suddenly fled to Dubai, from where he was later deported. Along with him the directors and others who benefited from the scheme were arrested. In all, around 25 people were arrested in connection with the scam. The agency has charged Khan, the then managing director of I-Monetary Advisory (IMA) jewels, and 19 other accused seven company directors, five members, an auditor, a private person and five private group companies — for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating among other charges under the Indian Penal Code. [/splco_spoiler]
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