The Karnataka High Court on Thursday granted bail to Mohammad Mansoor Khan, prime accused in the multicrore - I Monetary Advisory' (IMA) - scam, a case registered with the Directorate of Enforcement.

He has got bail in one case, while he is under trial for around 15 cases.

Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar granted bail to the accused on health grounds. Besides this the court also allowed the accused to be released on furnishing a bond for Rs 5 lakh and two sureties for the like amount to the satisfaction of the trial court.

The court took into consideration that Khan has been diabetic since the year 2013, suffering from hypertension since the year 2010, has cardiac problems and has also been suffering from degenerative spondylosis since October 2018.

ima scam
The Ponzi scheme operator Mohammed Mansoor Khan

"The Chief Medical Officer (Central Prison, Bengaluru) may have stated that the petitioner's health condition is stable (in prison), but it does not mean that the petitioner can continue to manage those ailments being inside the jail. Certainly, the ailments that he has, requires constant monitoring. The treatment that he may take outside the jail may be of different standard. It is pertinent to note that the Chief Medical Officer has clearly made an observation about the chronic disease conditions of the petitioner. Therefore, certainly this aspect can be considered for granting bail," the court observed.

The court further added that the trial court shall ascertain the whereabouts of the sureties before accepting the surety bonds, besides imposing conditions such as the accused Khan shall regularly appear before the trial court till conclusion of trial.

"He shall not tamper with the evidence and threaten the witnesses. He shall not alienate any of his properties till conclusion of trial and in case a need arises to alienate, he shall disclose to the trial court the purpose which necessitates alienation and obtain permission of the trial court. The trial court may impose conditions if it decides to permit alienation. Till conclusion of trial, he shall mark his attendance in the office of the respondent once in a fortnight, preferably on a Monday in between 9.00 am and 12.00 Noon. He shall not leave the jurisdiction of the trial court without prior permission," the court said while listing out the conditions.

Mohammed Mansoor Khan
Mohammed Mansoor Khan, MD and CEO of IMA groupfacebook

IMA scam investigation

It may be noted that Khan is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of IMA. Several individuals made investments in this company. A person named Mohammed Khalid Ahmed registered a complaint to the Commercial Street Police in Bengaluru against the company for refusing to return the deposit made by him.

Following this, the Karnataka Government constituted a special investigating team and thereafter the investigation was transferred to the CBI.

During the investigation, it came to light that the petitioner had collected Rs 4,000 crore from more than 55,000 people by giving a false picture about the profits being made by IMA group of companies.

A discrepancy to the tune of Rs 1001.80 crore was pointed out between the signed financial statements and the actual books of accounts of IMA Group of Entities.

The Enforcement Directorate took over the investigation and charged Khan under sections 406, 409, 420, 120B of Indian Penal Code and section 9 of KPIDFE Act and section 3 of the Prevention of Money Laundering (PML) Act.

(With inputs from IANS)