Karnataka Chief Minister directs SIT probe into IMA Jewellery fraud

According to official sources, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy ordered for a SIT probe into the money fraud, in which more than 5000 people, majority of them are from Minority Muslim community, got cheated by the IMA Jewelers, a Bengaluru based company.

More than 3000 people, who were allegedly lost their money, invested in the Company, have lodged complaint with the police and sought justice from the promoters of the company, who were absconding after shutting down their businesses.

Minister for Civil Services Zamir Ahmed Khan and two Congress legislators had also met Home Minister M B Patil in the morning and appealed to the State government to render justice to the people who had lost their money.

The state government, which had inclined to order for a probe by the City Crime Branch, later changed its stance and decided to hand over the probe to the SIT team.

The IMA group had businesses in several verticals, including bullion trading, retail jewellery, gold finance, infrastructure development, housing, book publishing and print media, in the city and had collected huge funds from the public, promising attractive rate of interest.

According to one estimate, the total fraud committed by the IMA company is to the tune of over Rs 500 crore and the Chief promoter of the company had allegedly fled from the country to UAE.