The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a case of money laundering in an alleged ponzi scheme in the garb of Islamic banking in Karnataka, involving the firm IMA Jewels, which duped thousands of Muslim investors of an estimated over Rs 1,500 crore during the last over one decade.

The ED has taken cognisance of the complaints registered by the Karnataka police and the subsequent creation of a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the alleged fraud by the dubious firm IMA Jewels led by Mohammed Mansoor Khan.

ED’s zonal office in Bengaluru filed an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), FIR in police parlance under the criminal charge of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The Central agency is now gathering documents related to the case and will summon the accused persons after scrutinizing the gathered materials in connection with the probe by the State police.

The cheated investors of the ponzi scheme filed as many as 26,000 complaints with the police against the ‘I Monetary Advisory (IMA) jewels’ store after an audio clip surfaced with a person named Mohammed Mansoor Khan, alleged to be its founder and managing director, heard saying he is going to commit suicide as he was fed up with corruption.

Khan had also alleged the Shivajinagar Congress MLA Roshan Baig took Rs 400 crore from him and was not returning it. However, Baig rubbished the charge, alleging that his political adversaries had orchestrated the “series of events” to tarnish his character.

The investors of the ponzi scheme are mainly vendors, small businessmen and from middle and lower middle class, essentially of the Muslim Community.

Khan is suspected to have fled to Dubai earlier this month.

Taking advantage of the Islamic postulation against earning interest, Khan had reportedly turned the investors into shareholders of his business and promised distributing the profit from his earnings and in the process packaging the dubious scheme as an accepted Islamic system.