The kingpin of the fraudulent firm I Monetary Advisory (IMA), Mohammed Mansoor Khan, has accused senior Congress leader and former minister RV Deshpande of taking Rs 5 crore bribe from him.
Khan, who is currently under the custody of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for running a Ponzi scheme and defrauding nearly 40,000 investors, has reportedly named Deshpande and 31 others including, high profile politicians, bureaucrats and police officers, for taking bribe from him.
In his 19-page statement, Khan has given the details of the amount paid to various people. He told the investigating officials that he met Deshpande through the disqualified MLA from Shivajinagar constituency R Roshan Baig. He said that Baig took him to Deshpande to get a no-objection certificate (NOC) in order to raise a loan for Rs 600 crore to sustain IMA from sinking.
The ED document shows that in his statement, Khan said: "R Roshan Baig took me and Nizamuddin, director (in IMA), to RV Deshpande, minister revenue department, and asked him to clear our file with Raj Kumar Khatri, principal secretary, revenue department," reported TOI.
Khan said that Deshpande had invited him to his house at RT Nagar and demanded Rs 5 crore from him to clear the NOC. He said that the Congress leader contacted him again in May, demanding another Rs 5 crore, claiming that it is serious work and requires more clearance from several departments. But Khan was low on funds at the time and never contacted him again.
However, Deshpande rubbished the claims made by Khan but admitted that he has met Khan through Baig. He said he never did any unlawful activity to help Khan or IMA.
According to reports, a letter written by the Governor of Karnataka, Vajubhai Vala, to SIT chief Ravikante Gowda has surfaced. In the letter, dated July 17, the governor Vala has allegedly asked Gowda to give protection to Roshan Baig, who is a witness in the IMA scam.
A Congress leader has accused the Governor of shielding Roshan Baig in the scam. They said that the Governor's office has misused their power under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rule and asked how Baig can be a witness when he is an accused in the scam, facing corruption charges.
