Me,myself and mines

He is a millionaire, claims Durga Oraon,who filed a PIL at the Jharkhand High Court seeking a CBI probe into the meteoric rise in Kodas assets from less than Rs 35 lakh in 2004 to over Rs 30 crore in 2009. I think he flourished by misusing his authority as chief minister, claims Oraon.

What is indisputable is that Koda has come a long way from his early years in the nondescript village of Patahatu,located near the iron ore mines of Gua. His father,Rasika,was a fourth-grade employee of IISCO,a private mining company now a SAIL subsidiary,and could afford to give his son,the eldest of three brothers,only a humble school education at Gua Madhya Vidyalaya.

However,young Madhu Koda evinced an interest in politics early on,joining the RSS when he was only 12 years old. He was also academically competent and went on to get his graduate degree in arts from Tata College,Chaibasa.

In the meantime,he grew increasingly involved in politics and was nominated as the Patahatu panchayat president of the BJP in 1988. He rose in the ranks to become the BJPs youth wing president even as he built up a career as a labour contractor for IISCO.

At the age of 32,Koda won the Jagannathpur ST Assembly seat on a BJP ticket in 2000. After the creation of Jharkhand,and Babulal Marandi becoming its first chief minister,Koda was appointed as the Mines Minister. He retained the portfolio even after Marandi was succeeded by Arjun Munda in 2003.

However,his stint in the BJP ended when he was denied a ticket to contest the 2005 Assembly polls. Undeterred,Koda went ahead and contested the Jagannathpur seat as an Independent candidate and emerged victorious.

When Jharkhand Mukti Morcha JMM chief Shibu Soren became the CM in 2004,Koda offered to support him,but Marandi prevailed upon him to rejoin the NDA government led by Munda as Mines Minister.

Subsequently,after he toppled the Munda government and became the CM with the backing of the Congress,JMM and RJD,Koda again held the portfolio of mines and continued to do so until his government fell after Soren withdrew his partys support to it on August 26,2008.

His troubles,however,were just beginning. Before he contested the reserved Singhbhum seat to win it as an Independent candidate in the Lok Sabha polls this year,Oraon had already filed the PIL. As per the law,leases for coal and iron ore mines are cleared by the Centre on the recommendation of the state government. The Mines Department allegedly deemed it fit not to adopt any transparent policy on criteria for recommending mining leases. In over 23 months under Koda,this department recommended to the Centre grant of lease on coal and iron ore mines to two dozen-odd companies including the worlds largest steel maker ArcelorMittal that plans to set up a 12-million-tonnes capacity Greenfield steel plant. Each of these leases was allegedly recommended after an underhand deal was struck. Although ArcelorMittal CEO Sanak Mishra was not available for comment,a company official on condition of anonymity alleged that Koda did not recommend any lease without taking a bribe. Kodas accomplice,businessman Vinod Sinha,allegedly collected the bribe sums. When I met Kodaji,he directed me to meet Sinha, said the official. When I met him,he asked me for Rs 200 crore as speed money.

Another investor who secured an iron ore mining lease had a similar story. My application was withheld for months. Ultimately,I met Vinod Sinha who got it cleared by Kodaji within two days.

If money is not there,I will not be allowed to stay on this chair for a day, Koda had told The Indian Express a week before the JMM withdrew support to his government.

Now,when asked to comment on the allegations against him,Koda only says,All charges against me are false.

Meanwhile,raids by I-T teams on properties allegedly owned by Koda and his associates continued on Sunday. Raids at several places are still on, IT director of investigation Ujjwal Chaudhary told reporters ,adding,The investigation is at a critical stage.

The other accused

Vinod Sinha,a Chaibasa-based businessman,and Sanjay Choudhary were close associates of Madhu Koda and,along with their respective brothers,played a key role in helping him build a multi-crore empire,according to the FIR lodged by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Both are currently absconding and the ED and I-T have issued notices calling upon them to appear before them within the next two days.

Vinod Sinha began his career in business as a vendor of milk in 1998 and then branched out into tractors. Soon,the Chaibasa branch of the Bank of Baroda lodged an FIR against him,alleging that Sinha had not supplied tractors to its clients and had misappropriated more than Rs 3.4 crore subsidy which was supposed to be given to each one of the customers by the state government. Now,the documents seized by I-T investigators show Sinha had invested over Rs 50 crore in the steel and power sector.

Sanjay Choudharys acquaintances still remember his father Jai Narayan going door to door on a cycle selling tobacco to earn a living. But after he came in contact with Koda in 2002,Choudhary hit the big time. He was flying to Dubai from Mumbai on September 15 last year when he was intercepted by Customs investigators,who found he was carrying Rs 1.64 lakh in cash,apart from 2,950,25,000 Dirhams and 15,000 Baht. Since he was carrying more cash than permitted under the law,Choudhary was detained and released after the money and his passport had been seized. According to the FIR,Choudhary,who is based in Dubai,had invested 10 million in acquiring coal mines in Liberia.