Bala Chauhan By Express News Service BENGALURU: Harsh Gupta, senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer and former regional commissioner, Bengaluru division, on Thursday has written to the government stating that his transfer and posting order dated January 13 is “misleading” because it stated that the newly created post of ‘Special Officer and Competent Authority’ is for “investigation of IMA cases.” In his letter to the Principal Secretary, Revenue, Gupta has pointed out that the investigation into the financial fraud of I Monetary Advisory (IMA) is already being conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) under the supervision of the Karnataka High Court.“The CBI and ED have identified properties of about Rs 450 crore belonging to the IMA group as against the likely claims of Rs 1,500 crore...The task of the Competent Authority is to dispose of attached properties and calling of claims by the depositors.. as per orders of the Special Court,” he has stated. Gupta was appointed as RC, Bengaluru Division, on July 1, 2019. Mid-August he was appointed the de-facto Competent Authority, IMA, after the government designated RC Bengaluru as the Competent Authority for IMA). The HC, under a PIL, is monitoring the actions being taken by various authorities for the IMA case. “l have filed various periodic status reports to the Hon’ble HC about actions taken as a Competent authority under Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments Act (KPIDFE), 2004. The Court has not commented at any of these hearings that a separate exclusive post should be created for the work of Competent Authority under KPIDFE Act, 2004,” Gupta has written. He has further stated that if the government intended to continue with the creation of a “separate post,” they should provide the required space, staff, vehicles, separate budget on priority basis and the creation of additional post of the rank of additional secretary/joint secretary.

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