ED letters confirm Koda murky deals

The Enforcement Directorate’s requests to foreign countries to extend judicial help in its probe into the money laundering scam involving former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda show that the scam involved hundreds of crores of rupees.

The Enforcement Directorate’s requests to foreign countries to extend judicial help in its probe into the money laundering scam involving former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda show that the scam involved hundreds of crores of rupees.

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The letters rogatory, as they are officially called, were sent by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to Liberia, the United Arab Emirates, Sweden and Thailand.

The letters state that “during his tenure as minister as well as chief minister Madhu Koda has surpassed all the limits of
corruption and acquired huge property in India and outside India”.

Besides Koda, the authorities are probing the role of his associates Binod Sinha, Sanjay Choudhary and Dhananjay Choudhary in the multi-crore scam.

The ED’s letter to Dubai lists several firms — including Balaji Holdings, Blue Star Holdings — that Koda and his aides had done business with.

It also cites six real estate projects in the UAE in which investments of more than Rs 250 crore were allegedly made by Koda through Binod Sinha and another associate, Anil Adinath Bastawade.

According to the letter sent to Sweden, Koda and his associates transferred money to Sweden through hawala (illegal) channels and entered into an agreement with Deloitte, Stockholm for investing in that country.

The letter rogatory to Thailand states that a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Blue Techno Projects Company (a firm belonging to a Koda aide) and Royal Tata Centre Exports-Imports Company, regarding port activities in Thai port of Ayutthaya, import and export of coal and limestone and other business activities.

Former Jamshedpur (West) MLA Saryu Rai, however, alleged on Monday that the ED was not pursuing the matter with the urgency it required.