Expanding its probe into the alleged multi-crore hawala and illegal investments case against the 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 ED team will gather documents and bank statements of certain companies allegedly set up by Mr. Koda and his associates in Mumbai.
Official sources said the team would also seek additional information on certain alleged hawala transactions through which Mr. Koda and his associates, booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, invested in benami properties abroad.
The sources said the ED had issued summons to certain companies in Mumbai whose names figured in documents seized by the Income Tax department during its countrywide searches on the premises of Mr. Koda and his partners on October 31.
The sources said the help of other economic enforcement agencies would be sought in investigations into the over Rs. 2,000-crore case.
Meanwhile, the ED could not question one of Mr. Koda’s associates Vikas Sinha, currently in its custody, as he was under treatment for kidney stone, sources said.
Income-Tax department sleuths on Tuesday questioned Mr. Koda at his house in Ranchi. They had to stop the questioning in the wake of his illness on November 3.
Mr. Koda, who is being probed for alleged diversion of government funds and corruption in awarding various contracts during his tenure as Jharkhand Minister of Mines and later as Chief Minister, is scheduled to appear before the ED on November 15 in Delhi.
Mr. Koda was Mines Minister in the BJP government headed by Arjun Munda in 2004 and had taken over as Chief Minister in September 2006.
Mr. Munda said on Tuesday that he would cooperate with any investigating agency in connection with the case against his former Cabinet colleague.
