The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Sunday arrested nominated BBMP councillor Syed Mujahid from his house on M.M. Road in Pulakeshinagar in connection with the I Monetary Advisory (IMA) Group investment scam.
Police sources said he was involved in financial transactions with IMA Group founder and managing director Mohammed Mansoor Khan, who fled the country for Dubai on June 8.
A SIT team searched Mujahid’s house and questioned him for hours before formally arresting him. “We recovered an SUV, two cell phones, and several documents pertaining to the IMA Group of companies from his house as part of the investigation,” said a senior police officer.
During the interrogation, Mujahid allegedly said he was planning to flee to Dubai, as he had come under the scanner of the SIT. “Shortly after the investment scam came to light, he went into hiding for two weeks and returned to his home only recently to meet his family. The police who were gathering information on him nabbed him while he was at his house,” the officer added.
Incidentally, Mujahid put out a video on YouTube in the second week of June claiming that he had met Mansoor at the Kempegowda International Airport on June 8, when the latter was fleeing the country. In the video, Mujahid had claimed that he had knowledge of Mansoor’s business activities and had also invested money in his company.
He will remain in police custody for 15 days.
The SIT has so far identified 101 bank accounts with money totalling to ₹1.16 crore linked to IMA group. These accounts have been frozen for further investigation, an SIT officer said.
The IMA Group and Mansoor are accused of cheating more than 50,000 investors across Karnataka in a Ponzi scheme to the tune of thousands of crores. Apart from the SIT, the Enforcement Directorate too is investigating the scam.
