Former CM Madhu Koda’s property raided

The Income Tax Department conducted searches at 70 locations in 10 towns against former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda (38) and 22 of his associates. They claimed to have found evidence of disproportionate assets worth Rs 1,800 crore. Madan Kumar reports.

The income tax department on Saturday conducted searches at 70 locations in 10 towns against former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda (38) and 22 of his associates. They claimed to have found evidence of disproportionate assets worth Rs 1,800 crore.

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Passbooks and documents relating to over 200 bank accounts and several bank lockers were seized. The searches also yielded evidence of huge investments in different factories and mines, some of them in Africa.

Four hundred I-T department employees were engaged in the searches conducted in association with the Enforcement Directorate at Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Chaibasa, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Lucknow, Nasik and Koda’s ancestral village, Patahatu in West Singhbhum district, Jharkhand.

“It appears there were unaccounted money transactions when Koda was minister of mines and geology during the Arjun Munda government and during (his) chief ministership between 2006-08,” the department’s Director of Investigation Ujjawal Choudhary and Additional Director Ajit Shrivastava said. Koda was not available for comment.