Other States - Jharkand   

IT sleuths question Koda again

Photo: Manob Chowdhury

Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate personnel enter Madhu Koda’s house in Ranchi on Tuesday.

Ranchi/New Delhi: Expanding its probe into the multi-crore rupee alleged hawala and illegal investments case against former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, an Enforcement Directorate team will leave for Mumbai on Wednesday to ascertain his alleged investments in Bollywood and some companies set up there by him and his associates.

The Income Tax department sleuths on Tuesday questioned Koda at his house in Ranchi, after having discontinued it in the wake of his illness on November 3.

The ED team will head to Mumbai to gather documents and bank statements of certain companies which were allegedly set up by Koda and his associates.

Official sources said the team will also seek additional information on certain allegedly hawala transactions through which Koda and his associates, booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, invested in benami properties abroad.

Sources said ED has also issued summons to certain companies in Mumbai whose name cropped up in documents seized by the I-T department during its countrywide searches on the premises of Koda and his partners on October 31.

The enforcement agency is also probing Koda’s alleged investments in Bollywood, they added.

Sources said the help of other economic enforcement agencies would be sought in investigations into the over Rs 2000 crore case.

Patna: Demanding a through probe against leaders whose names reportedly figure in a diary of former Koda, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has said that Congress and RJD leaders cannot escape responsibility for the “loot of funds“.

“A thorough probe be conducted against the politicians, instrumental behind formation and extending support to a government led by an independent (Madhu Koda) in Jharkhand for nearly 24 months, whose names figure in the diary,” Mr. Kumar said.

He was reacting to a query from reporters after the Cabinet meeting on the seizure of Koda’s diary by the Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate sleuths, in which the names of some Congress and RJD leaders reportedly figure.

He alleged that everybody in Jharkhand, even small children were aware of the “clandestine loot of funds and leaders having note counting machines installed at their homes” while sharing responsibilities with Koda in the ministry and added “the leaders of Congress and RJD cannot escape their responsibilities“. Both the Congress and the RJD had been “party to the high drama” enacted while installing a government of Independents led by Koda in Jharkhand, Kumar said, adding it was “yet another glaring example of the corrupt mentality of people”. PTI

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