The government on Wednesday told the High Court of Karnataka that it has issued a notification on July 6, 2021, attaching around 20 immovable and movable assets of former Minister R. Roshan Baig situated in various parts of the city in connection with his alleged involvement in the scam of I Monetary Advisory (IMA) group of companies.
Also, the government issued another notification under the Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishment Act, 2004, attaching a sum of ₹62.26 crore paid in excess to the 100 top depositors of the IMA group who had received amount in excess of their principal deposit amounts from out of the deposits of the IMA group.
The copies of the notifications were submitted before a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj during the hearing of a batch of PIL petitions related to the scam.
The attached assets were those declared by Mr. Baig along with his nomination papers when contesting elections to the State Assembly in 2018 and the present market value of these properties are yet to be declared after being assessed by the jurisdictional sub-registrars, it was stated in the notification. The notification has also indicated the values of these properties, around ₹15-₹16 crore, as declared by Mr. Baig in his affidavit filed before the Election Commission of India.
Govt. school issue
Meanwhile, the Bench said that it would decide the issue on fate of ₹12.82 crore spent by IMA council, a charitable arm of IMA group, for redevelopment and maintenance of V.K. Obaidullah Government School in Shivajinagar. The government has opposed the view of the Competent Authority (CA) that the school building has to be attached if the Education Department cannot return the ₹12.82 crore spent by the IMA council.
As the government is opposing the views of the CA, senior IAS officer Harsh Gupta, the Bench said that it would consider whether the CA will have to be permitted to engage a separate advocate instead of he being represented by the government advocate.
