It is our responsibility to ensure that innocents who have lost their money get it back: BSY
Bengaluru: The Karnataka BJP Saturday RPT Saturday demanded a CBI probe into the alleged financial fraud perpetrated by an investment firm here, leaving thousands of investors in the lurch.
The owner of city-based IMA Jewels, Mohammed Mansoor Khan, had disappeared few days ago after allegedly threatening to commit suicide while police have formed teams to trace him.
State BJP chief B S Yedyurappa put forth the demand for a probe by the central agency after a group of people belonging to the minority community, most of them investors in IMA Jewels, met him and submitted a petition.
Yeddyurappa assured them that BJP MPs from Karnataka would ensure the central governments intervention and steps to ensure the Enforcement Directorate probe into the case.
"We (BJP) feel that it is our responsibility to ensure that innocents who have lost their money get it back," Yeddyurappa was quoted as saying by BJP in a release.
Only a CBI inquiry can ensure justice to the affected investors, he said, as he held the state government responsible for the "injustice" to the IMA investors.
The BJP leader also promised those who met him that the centre would take all steps to find out the whereabouts of IMA jewels owner Mohammed Mansoor Khan.
Earlier, speaking to reporters, Yeddyurappa raised questions about Minority welfare minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan's alleged links with Mohammed Mansoor Khan.
"While asking him (Mansoor) to come back, Zameer, who is a Minister, has said that government is with you (Mansoor), don’t fear- what does this mean? Chief Minister has to answer this," he said.
Hitting back at Yeddyurappa, Zameer Ahmed Khan pointed out that it was he who took initiative after the incident came to light and sought a SIT probe.
"It was not Yeddyurappa. Making speeches sitting somewhere is not enough. We are doing whatever we can. SIT is probing...," he said.
Nearly 30,000 complaints have so far been received by police in connection with the case, relating to which seven directors of the firm were apprehended on June 12 .
Mohammed Mansoor Khan went absconding after allegedly threatening to commit suicide in an audio clip.
As the audio went viral, panicked investors, most of them Muslims, had swarmed the firm's office at Shivajinagar in thousands, demanding action against the owner and directors.
Khan in an audio clip had purportedly said he was committing suicide as he was fed up with corruption.
He had also alleged the Shivajinagar Congress MLA Roshan Baig took Rs 400 crore from him and was not returning it.
Baig had rubbished the charge, alleging that his political adversaries had orchestrated the "series of events" to tarnish his character.
On June 12, The Karnataka government had formed a 11-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case.
As reports emerged that Khan had fled to Dubai, the SIT had said they were investigating his whereabouts.
The Enforcement Directorate also filed a case of money laundering in the alleged ponzi scheme.
The agency's zonal office here filed an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), equivalent to an FIR, and has pressed criminal charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), officials had said.
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EU summit will focus on Iran war, loan to Ukraine blocked by Hungary
Brussels (AP): European Union leaders are holding a summit in Brussels on Thursday for talks on the Iran war, energy prices, migration and an enormous loan for war-ravaged Ukraine being held up by Hungary.
Many of those leaders have deflected entreaties by US President Donald Trump to send military assets to secure the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the global flow of oil, gas and fertiliser.
Rising energy prices because of the war and fears in Europe of a new refugee crisis have pushed leaders to make the Middle East one of the top priorities at the summit.
The European Commission, the EU's executive branch, has floated the idea of a “toolbox” of measures to lower energy prices for leaders to discuss because no single policy will work across the myriad markets in the 27-nation bloc to blunt economic shocks from the war, according to a senior European diplomat who wasn't authorised to be publicly named so spoke on condition of anonymity.
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The summit will also focus on a long-brewing standoff between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and most other EU nations.
The last EU summit was held in December at a Belgian castle, where the leaders including Orban agreed to a 90 billion-euro (USD 104 billion) loan for Ukraine for help overcoming a budget shortfall in the country as it grapples with a grinding war with Russia.
But a month later, Orban backtracked after the Druzhba oil pipeline was disabled in January after what Ukrainian officials said was a Russian drone attack.
The pro-Russia leader, who has held office in Hungary since 2010, is running an aggressive media campaign villainising both Brussels and Kyiv as he seeks reelection next month.
“If there is no oil, there is no money,” Orban said in a social media post on Tuesday.
To get Ukraine the much-needed loan, EU leaders and diplomats will lobby Orban and Slovakia's prime minister, Robert Fico, whose government has also taken pro-Russia stances.
On Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen offered for the EU to pay to repair the Druzhba pipeline and the development of alternative fuel lines for Hungary and Slovakia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that any obstruction to the loan is “absolutely unfair” and that there is “no alternative” for the embattled nation than those funds as it faces a severe budget crisis because of the war, which began on February 24, 2022.
“There may be alternatives in terms of financing mechanisms, but there is simply no alternative to strengthening our army,” Zelenksyy said on Wednesday.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told lawmakers in Berlin on Wednesday that the EU must swiftly reach an agreement on the 20th package of sanctions against Russia and the loan.
He said that he would “advocate for that emphatically” in Brussels and that “we must not take into consideration a single country in the European Union that is currently setting up this blockade in Europe now for domestic political reasons and because of an election campaign that is being conducted there.”
Merz said, in urging for more sanctions, that “the needs of the moment call for us to increase the pressure on Moscow together – the US and the European partners together."
