Bengaluru, Dec 5: Former Karnataka minister Roshan Baig has been granted conditional bail by a special CBI court in the multi-billion I-Monetary Advisory (IMA) Ponzi scam. He is the 36th accused in the case.
Baig was arrested by CBI on November 22 and a raid was conducted at his residences the next day. In the bail order, the judge ordered to surrender his passport and also directed to appear before CBI officials whenever required. Shashikiran Shetty who appeared for Roshan Baig argued that CBI had taken Roshan Baig into custody and have questioned. Also, Baig has co-operated with CBI officials for investigations.
The ex-minister is accused of taking a kickback of Rs 400 crore from IMA Group’s founder-director Mohammed Mansoor Khan. The scam is worth Rs 4,000 crore and over 50,000 investors have been cheated, according to CBI.
Baig’s name emerged when the scam surfaced nearly 18 months ago. Khan, who had fled the country and was arrested later on his return from Dubai in July 2019, has claimed he paid crores of rupees as bribes to state politicians and several other government officials.
In mid-2019, police found documents in which a key associate of Khan had recorded payments made to politicians, policemen and government officials. It showed Baig as a key recipient of funds.
Officials said Baig will be made to confront Khan and BDA official PD Kumar on Thursday. According to CBI sources, the digital hard drive seized from Khan has a list of people to whom he paid bribes and they are going through it. Khan had informed directors of IMA Group about the bribes paid through email, which has been accessed by CBI.
Besides state government employees and IPS officers, some central investigating agency officials are also on CBI’s radar, an official said.
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