IMA scam: SC stays HC order granting relief to Karnataka IGP Hemant Nimbalkar

In a big setback to senior IPS officer and Karnataka IGP Hemant Nimbalkar, the Supreme Court on Friday stayed a Karnataka High Court order quashing a CBI FIR and chargesheet filed against him in the Rs 4,000 crore I-Monetary Advisory (IMA) ponzi scam.

A bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and R Subhash Reddy suspended operation of the High Court's order passed on March 19, 2021.

The court issued notice to Nimbalkar, seeking his response on a petition filed by the CBI, questioning the relief granted to the officer.

The apex court's order means that the officer would continue to face criminal proceedings for now in the case registered by the CBI on February 1, 2020.

It was alleged that the Nimbalkar as the IGP of CID had forwarded the enquiry report of E B Sridhara – another accused – to the State DG and IGP on January 18, 2019, asserting that the enquiry did not find any wrongdoings on the part of the IMA group of entities to invoke the provisions of Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishment Act, 2004 against them.

It was alleged that the officer had categorically maintained that the deposits collected by the IMA group of entities were exempted under the law and he did not mention about the deposits collected by the IMA Proprietorship owned by main accused Mohammed Mansoor Khan in his report.

On RBI's request for a comprehensive enquiry by the CID on unauthorised deposits, the officer had on May 25, 2019, asserted that there was no requirement to re-look into the IMA issue.