Graft chargesheet filed against Koda

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has charged Madhu Koda, chief minister of Jharkhand from September 2006 to August 2008, with collecting Rs 181 crore in graft deals during this tenure. The chargesheet was filed recently at the special court here dealing with cases under the money laundering statute.

D N Poddar, additional director, ED, told journalists that of the Rs 181 crore, Koda had directly invested Rs 106 crore and spent the rest. The chargesheet says his purchases included a mine in the West African state of Liberia for Rs 7.65 crore. He is also said to have invested huge amounts in various companies through his associates.

Official source said that during countrywide raids in October 2009 at 70-odd premises of Koda and his aides, the Income Tax and ED authorities had recovered documents showing Koda and his associates’ involvement in hawala transactions and illegal investments.

The ED booked Koda and his associates under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act in 2009. Before this, the Jharkhand Vigilance Bureau arrested Koda from his home town, Chaibasa in Singhbhum district, under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code. The sections included 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (misappropriation and defalcation), 420 (cheating for gain) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy).

The Vigilance Bureau had raided nine residential premises of Koda and three associates, on a court directive. It came on a suit alleging Koda and three of his ministers — Kamlesh Singh, Bhanu Pratap Shahi and Bandhu Tirkey — had amassed property disproportionate to their known sources of income.