State permits prosecution of three more police officers in IMA case

They have been made accused, along with two senior IPS officers, for allegedly helping the kingpin Mohammed Mansoor Khan

The State government accorded permission to prosecute E.B. Sridhar – then Deputy Superintendent of police, CID, Economic Offences Division; M. Ramesh – then Inspector, Commercial Street Police Station; and P. Gowrishankar – then sub-inspector, Commercial Street Police Station, in connection with the multi-crore IMA scam.

The trio have been made accused, along with two senior IPS officers, for allegedly helping the kingpin Mohammed Mansoor Khan.

The Anti Corruption Branch of the CBI registered a case against I-Monetary Advisory (IMA) Private Limited and 30 others in August last year.

A report submitted by the CBI while seeking sanction for prosecution said that Sridhar conducted an “improper” inquiry into the activities of Mohammed Mansoor Khan and IMA. He did not collect relevant documents and without assessing the business activities and the modus operandi adopted by the IMA, he came to the conclusion that the IMA and its entities received investments from partners of LLPs and the same were not coming under the KPID Act.

The report further stated that Sridhar did not conduct any inquiry against Mohammed Mansoor Khan and IMA despite receiving detailed explanation of various queries from the RBI. He did not even examine the officials concerned of the RBI or the authority concerned.

The CBI report mentions that Ramesh demanded and accepted “illegal gratification” from Mohammed Mansoor Khan for not taking action against IMA on various complaints. Further, no action was taken by him against IMA on various complaints, and closed the complaints without examining the petitioners.

The CBI report states that Gowrishankar had demanded and accepted illegal gratification on various occasions from Mohammed Mansoor Khan for not taking action against IMA on various complaints, closing the complaints without examining the petitioners.

The State government, in January this year, accorded sanction for prosecution of the then head of the CID economic offences wing Hemanth Nimbalkar, and the then deputy Commissioner of Police (East division) Ajay Hilori for receiving benefits in return for favourable reports in the IMA case.