The biggest scamsters and fraudsters in the world may feel like losers and small fish should they hear about our homegrown Mansoor Khan and his IMA. At last count, nearly 40,000 complaints of cheating have been lodged against him with the Bengaluru police – involving an untold sum of money in a long drawn and well-orchestrated criminal network. Several thousands of his victims were destitute and people living on a hand-to-mouth existence. He did not even spare the beggars on the street and convinced them also to sink their life savings in his Ponzi scheme – one of the biggest in the world. He has since disappeared, and nobody knows where he is now.
When he was quietly going about his business, he was seen with the who’s who of Karnataka politics, police and Islamic clerics. He built up a large and a lunatic fan base that still claims that he will return with bags of cash to pay off his heartbroken victims.
The Karnataka Government has expectedly done what it generally does in such cases – put together a ragtag of incompetent, inexperienced and slavish police officers and call them as a ‘Special Investigative Team’ (‘SIT’).
Nearly two weeks after Mansoor Khan’s disappearance, the SIT knows as much about his whereabouts as any of those 40,000 victim-families already know – nothing.
Not surprisingly, the Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy does not even think that the victims of Mansoor Khan deserve anything more than a line or two of his lacklustre assurance. And, the opposition BJP does not seem to know what would work for them and look profoundly lost. The BJP wants the investigation to be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (‘CBI’). Of course, the CBI is a terrific and blazing police force – in the script of Kannada and Bollywood films; it is as much prone to manipulation, mediocrity and corruption as any other police force in this country.
So, what are people really left with, then? Well, I have consistently held out in the past two weeks in the media that no victim of Mansoor Khan is likely to see even one paisa returned to them by our police force, government or the Courts – going by the precedent. Let’s ignore Mansoor Khan and his IMA for a moment and see where Karnataka stood before his massive scam was revealed and he disappeared.
The State had witnessed a steady rise of Ponzi rackets and large cheating schemes in the last 15 years and none of those scamsters has been prosecuted successfully and consequently, those countless victims are still waiting for their money to reach them. Tragically, our government still urges those victims to continue dreaming that their money will reach them somehow soon! The same government now claims that Mansoor Khan and his IMA will be successfully prosecuted and his victims compensated swiftly - an event that is just as likely as an ageing movie actor with nothing but disastrous flops in the past fifteen years delivering an all-time hit on his next film!
We have more laws in this country than any other country on the planet and yet, the police, revenue, legal and finance departments in the State Government, the Reserve Bank of India, Securities Exchange Board of India and the Income Tax Department at the Centre claim that they were legally impotent to stop Mansoor Khan and the tragedy that struck his victims.
Of course, they are terribly wrong and deeply dishonest when they say so. Why should not we probe the officers in different departments that knowinglyor openly enabled this scamster to grow in strength? Such officers represent the rotting flesh in our bureaucracy. Keeping them intact will surely ensure that we will stay on course for the next bigger Ponzi tragedy.
The Courts that dealt with all the Ponzi schemes in Karnataka over the last fifteen years are not without colossal blame, either. Magistrates already have substantial power of monitoring investigation in deserving cases when they perceive that the police are deliberately delaying the investigation or prosecution.
Why didn’t they use it effectively in the last fifteen years in such cases? And, judges of our higher courts such as the Supreme Court and the High Courts are appointed by a panel of judges instead of the government – on the premise that doing so preserves the appointed judges’ independence so that they could greater good to the public. I have consistently said that there is no evidence that, collectively, judges so appointed since 1998 are doing more good to the public than if they were mere government appointees.
The failure of the Supreme Court of India and the Karnataka High Court – over the past fifteen years - in rigorously enforcing laws that protect public against Ponzi schemes, punish the wrongdoers and compensate the victims is just as evident as Mansoor Khan’s worrying disappearance at the moment.
Finally, Mansoor Khan: If you are reading this, I just have one question for you. And, you alone can answer it.
Why did you put the lives of more than 40,000 families, most of whom are in severe poverty, in deep distress? Your victims are dying to know about it more than whether you are alive or as you had assured, dead.
The failure of the Supreme Court of India and the Karnataka High Court – over the past fifteen years - in rigorously enforcing laws that protect public against Ponzi schemes, punish the wrongdoers and compensate the victims is just as evident as Mansoor Khan’s worrying disappearance at the moment.
Finally, Mansoor Khan: If you are reading this, I just have one question for you. And, you alone can answer it.
Why did you put the lives of more than 40,000 families, most of whom are in severe poverty, in deep distress? Your victims are dying to know about it more than whether you are alive or as you had assured, dead.
—The author is an advocate, Supreme Court
