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| Rs 1.16 lakh cr MoUs during Koda rule |
| Saubhadro Chatterji / Ranchi Nov 10, 2009, 00:47 IST |
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Between 2005 and 2008, Jharkhand govt signed MoUs for various mega projects.
Although he began his life as a labourer in iron ore mines, former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, at the centre of a spreading scandal following a probe on unaccounted money, built his empire between 2005 and 2008 — when he was the mines minister (February 2005 to September 2006) and later chief minister (September 2006 to August 2008).
During this period, the Jharkhand government signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with private parties amounting to Rs 1,61,708 crore for various mega projects like steel plants and sponge iron factories. Most of the MoUs related to minerals and mines in the state. Along with these, Koda also renewed or issued fresh licences to at least 150 miners, according to documents available with the Income Tax Department.
As the MoUs and mine licences rained down from Koda’s office, it was Koda’s associates who became “successful entrepreneurs”. In 2007 alone, Koda’s associates took over at least 12 companies in India and abroad. Koda’s name is not on the board of directors of any of these companies. Binod Sinha, Vikas Sinha and Sanjay Choudhary — the three key accused in the multi-crore disproportionate assets scam — floated these companies mostly in their names. While Vikas Sinha is in Delhi, both Binod and Sanjay are untraceable.
Interestingly, the I-T officials conceded to Business Standard that so far none of the investments in India, allegedly out of Koda’s money, has been made in his own name or even his wife’s name.
Documents produced in the Jharkhand High Court show M R Marketing Pvt Ltd (registered office in Jamshedpur) has Vikas Sinha and Vijay Joshi as directors. Similarly, M R Power, M R Techno project, M R Infrastructure, M R Transportation have Vikas Sinha and Vijay Joshi as directors. Sanjay Choudhary appears as a director in Blue Techno, a Dubai based company floated in 2007.
“Many people have called us or even provided papers to show how Koda’s people took money but didn’t deliver on promises after we sought public information through telephone and emails,” said a top IT official at Ranchi, “We are verifying the facts and we have seen already that these facts are true.”
I-T sources said that when Koda became the chief minister, his group started acquiring sick companies at cheap prices. “The Indo-Asahi company, headquartered in Kolkata, was a joint venture between a Japanese company and a Jharkhand government undertaking. Koda’s men bought the sick companyfor just Rs 7 crore in 2007. The company had a liability of around Rs 50 crore, but its assets were worth more than Rs 250 crore.
The interrogation of Koda, the main accused, will start from Tuesday morning. Earlier, the taxmen had planned to begin it from Monday but Koda had sought time for “a day’s rest” after coming out of the hospital. “He is an MP and he cannot run away. So, we had no problem in giving him one more day to take rest,” Additonal Commissioner (investigations) Ajit Srivastava said.
Meanwhile, Devendra Mukhia, another Koda accomplice, today appeared before the I-T sleuths who questioned him for more than eight hours.
According to the I-T officials, Mukhia repeatedly said that he didn’t know Koda well and met him only through an aide. But many documents seized earlier during raids suggest Mukhia was a linkman between private mining parties and Koda’s friends.
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