Koda arrested,blames high-level conspiracy

State Vigilance sleuths on Monday arrested former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda in connection with a corruption and fraud case.

The case was lodged on July 2 by the Vigilance,which alleged that Koda had misused his authority as chief minister and indulged in fraud along with two of his associates Binod Sinha and Sanjay Choudhary to amass property disproportionate to his known sources of income.

The three face charges under various Sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code that include 406 criminal breach of trust,409 misappropriation and defalcation,423 concealing property,420 cheating for gain and 120-B criminal conspiracy.

After his arrest from his hometown Chaibasa,Koda,who for weeks avoided summons from the Enforcement Directorate ED in a separate multi-crore money laundering case,was produced before the special court Vigilance of Binay Kant Khan. The court remanded him in judicial custody for 14 days.

Following his arrest,Koda said he was being implicated in false cases. It is a high-level political conspiracy. I have full faith in the judiciary. I am sure I will come out clean as I had done nothing wrong, he said .

The Vigilance is planning to take him on remand for interrogation. We have enough evidence showing his involvement in the crime, IG Vigilance M V Rao said.

The FIR against Koda,Sinha and Choudhary was lodged by the Vigilance after a directive from the court on a complaint by one R K Sharma. The complainant had alleged that the three along with three former ministers NCPs Kamlesh Singh,Forward Blocs Bhanu Pratap Shahi and Independent Bandhu Tirkey had gained property disproportionate to their known sources of income.

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Kamlesh Singh was also arrested on Monday from Hussainabad in Palamau,a day before he was to file his nomination for the Assembly elections. He had been remanded in judicial custody.

On July 24,the Vigilance had raided nine residential premises of Koda,Singh,Shahi and Tirkey and seized registers,files and other documents. Several files pointing toward their assets in the form of buildings,flats and bungalows were also seized. From the house of Tirkey a revolver was also recovered, DGP Vigilance Nayaz Ahmed said.

Even as the Vigilance studied the seized documents,the ED booked Koda,Sinha,Choudhary,Singh,Shahi,Tirkey and three others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act on October 9. Subsequently,the IT conducted nationwide raids in 70 premises and recovered documents allegedly showing Koda and his associates indulged in hawala transactions and illegal investments running into more than Rs 2,000 crore.

Despite three summons by the ED over the past one month,Koda failed to turn up. He had asked the ED to fix a fresh date for questioning after the Assembly polls ended on December 18.