ED gets arrest warrant against Koda's close aide

In a boost to the Enforcement Directorate (ED), a court here issued an arrest warrant against Binod Sinha, close associate of former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda in connection with the multi-crore illegal investments and hawala case.

Official sources said the arrest warrant was issued by the Prevention of Money Laundering Act court after the ED moved an application for the same.

Sinha and another of Koda's associate Sanjay Chowdhary had failed to appear before the Directorate despite repeated summons.

The ED, which had questioned Sinha's brother Vikash in connection with the same case at its zonal headquarter after it got his custody, has been on his lookout ever since it registered the money-laundering case on October 9.

Binod had also been evading the Income Tax department, which had issued a number of summons as part of its parallel probe in the case.

Sources said the Directorate is also planning to move the court to get an arrest warrant issued against Chowdhary too.

Sinha was one of the major player in the hawala network and had invested a lot abroad allegedly at behest of Koda, they said.

Koda has denied the allegations, terming the case against him as a "political move".