Ranchi/New Delhi, Nov 1 (Agencies): The Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate officials have come out with shocking revelations that former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda might have made large illegal investments in countries as far as Liberia, besides better-known destinations like the UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Koda, who as an independent MLA, exploited the hung assembly verdict in Jharkhand after the 2005 assembly elections to dictate terms to mainstream parties like the BJP and Congress to grab the chief minister’s chair, could become the first former chief minister to face arrest and trial under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
On Saturday, Income Tax Department conducted searches on the alleged properties Koda and some of his close associates allegedly acquired in several cities across the country.
From the evidence gathered, IT officials said Koda might have made an investment of US$ 17 lakh in Liberia in mines business. The officials said the hawala transactions were to the tune of over Rs 1,500 crore.
Income Tax sleuths, who carried out countrywide searches on Saturday on 70 premises allegedly owned by former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda and his associates, claimed that besides investments in mines, Koda and his aides were suspected to have made direct and benami investments in hundreds of crores of rupees in real estate firms and properties both in the country and abroad.
Koda has been flying off to Bangkok regularly with some close aides who apparently have direct links with some industrialists. The IT department also claimed to have found evidence of ‘unaccounted’ money transactions during his tenure as mines and geology minister in the Arjun Munda government and later as the chief minister, IT Director of Investigation Ujjwal Choudhary told reporters in Ranchi after raids on the premises of Koda and his alleged associates Sanjay Choudhary and Binod Sinha.
The searches were conducted by at least 70 teams and assisted by Enforcement Directorate men on the properties located in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Lucknow, Nasik, Ranchi, Chaibasa and Jamshedpur, officials said. Koda and his close associates were charged on October 10 for money laundering of more than Rs 4,000 crore.