A group of investors, who have lost their hard-earned money in the scam of I-Monetary Advisory (IMA) Group of companies, have moved the High Court of Karnataka seeking the court’s monitoring of the functioning of the Competent Authority (CA), appointed by the State government under the Karnataka Protection of Interests of Depositors in Financial Establishments (KPIDFE) Act, for IMA scam case.
Justice K.V. Aravind, before whom the petition was filed by Rehana Khyser Shariff and three others from Bengaluru, recently ordered issue notice to the government and the CA while adjourning further hearing on the petition.
In the petition, filed through advocate Rohan Kothari, the petitioners have contended that the CA is working without any other authority or institution seeking its accountability. Monitoring by the court is essential as the victim-investors were not getting any proper updates from the CA despite efforts made by the affected investors of IMA companies by forming a society, namely Integrated Welfare Association, for taking up the causes of the victim-investors, it has been alleged in the petition.
Pointing out that there are instances of cases in which the constitutional courts have taken steps of supervising, monitoring and issuing directions to guide the work of authorities set up to handle claims of a large swathe of investors affected by financial frauds, the petitioners have said that they are seeking the High Court’s monitoring as investors of the IMA are in the dark on the progress made by the CA in the past four years on the proceedings before various fora under the KPIDFE Act.
The CA has been claiming that information sought by the investors cannot be given due to the pendency of civil and criminal cases in the courts, the petitioners have stated.
Stating that investors are getting some information through the publication of the court’s orders in the media, the petitioners have said that the CA has not been even informing the investors about the directions of the special court, which on October 6, 2023 permitted the CA to disburse ₹69.45 crore to the investors.
