CBI to send team to UAE to extradite Koda aide

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will send its teams to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Denmark to expedite the extradition of accused in Madhu Koda disproportionate assets case and Purulia arms case respectively. Abhishek Sharan reports.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will send its teams to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Denmark to expedite the extradition of accused in Madhu Koda disproportionate assets case and Purulia arms case respectively.

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Sanjay Choudhary, who is in UAE, is an accused in a disproportionate assets case in which Jharkhand's former chief minister Madhu Koda is a co-accused.

Dubai authorities had arrested Chaudhary, an alleged close aide of Koda who handled the latter's illegal investments abroad, on November 9, 2011, on an Interpol Red Corner Notice. Despite many communications to the UAE authorities, there was no "adequate response with regard to the request to extradite Sanjay Chaudhary to India," said a CBI source.

"We had recently contacted the Indian ambassador to the UAE to get our extradition request expedited. Our team, once in UAE, will hold discussions with the UAE authorities to persuade them to speed up the extradition process," said the source. In November 2011, the CBI had chargesheeted Koda, Chaudhary and another accused in a designated court in Ranchi in connection with a case filed against them for allegedly possessing assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.

Chaudhary and the two other accused were charged with having allegedly received R13 crore as bribe for allotting land to a private firm for mining iron ore in Jharkhand.

Meanwhile, the CBI has sent a senior official to Denmark to persuade its authorities to challenge an order of the Denmark High Court given last June against the extradition of Kim Davy, the alleged mastermind of the December 1995 Purulia arms drop case. "We have sent a deputy inspector general, who was part of the Purulia investigations, to Denmark to persuade its authorities to explore options to get Davy extradited and face trial," said a CBI source.