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Bengaluru, Feb 27: About 60kg of unaccounted gold ornaments worth Rs. 21 crore were unearthed by officers of the Commercial Taxes Department of Karnataka Government.

The ornaments were recovered after the department conducted surprise inspections and raided business premises of wholesale jewellery dealers in Ranganatha Mansion and Sakalajee Market in Chickpet area of Bengaluru on Tuesday.

"The raid was based on information that many traders from other states visit the city and carry gold jewels without any valid documents and supply it to local jewellers without invoices," said Srikar MS Commissioner of Commercial Taxes in a statement.

The officers raided the premises of 23 jewellers and found 60 kg gold ornaments in stock which were not covered by valid documents. A penalty was levied on the undocumented ornaments.

"It is informed that the enforcement wing is keeping a close watch on the interstate movement of gold, silver and all the dealers in the state are hereby advised not to buy any goods without valid purchase invoices, added Srikar MS.

Bengaluru, Mar 5: The Karnataka government has constituted a competent authority for I Monetary Advisory (IMA) cases under the KPIDFE (Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments) Act, 2004, which is required to call claims from erstwhile depositors of the IMA group of entities under the provisions of the Act, said Harsh Gupta, Special Officer and Competent Authority for IMA cases.

In order to ensure transparency and to avoid harassment to the claimants, an online application software has been developed for accepting claims from the depositors, Gupta stated.

"The claim application can be filed from any of Banglore-1, Karnataka-1 and Seva-Sindhu Kendras of the state government in person or through online. The required documents can be submitted using e-attestation along with claims or at a later date, but prior to the claim settlement. The details of authorities for e-attestation will be informed later," the official stated.

The claimants will have to provide Aadhaar authentication based identification or identification by the designated officer based on alternate documents; current mobile number and address among others.

The details of the draft claim filing process has been put for public feedback on website 'imaclaims.karnataka.gov.in'. The depositors can give their feedback on the website, WhatsApp number or email, Gupta stated.

Based on feedback received from the depositors, the claim process and the claim application software will be finalised, the official said and further informed that the start date for acceptance of claims will be informed through wide publicity at a later date.

"There will be a total time period of 30 days for submission of the claims from the start date of acceptance of claims," Gupta said.

An SIT was investigating the multi-crore IMA Jewels case, where the firm had allegedly cheated a large number of investors after promising them impressive returns on their deposits. The SIT has already arrested several government officials and questioned others including politicians in the matter.

The prime accused and Managing Director of IMA Mohammed Mansoor Khan, who had fled the country after several complaints were registered against him in connection with the scam, has also been arrested.

The state government had constituted an SIT to probe the scam when it first came to light in June earlier this year when more than 4,000 investors trooped outside the showroom after an audio clip purportedly recorded by Khan went viral.