Enforcement Directorate grills Koda for four hours

RANCHI - Former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, who is at the centre of a Rs.2,500-crore money laundering scam, was Thursday interrogated by a team of enforcement directorate for nearly four hours in a Ranchi jail.

“A four-member team headed by a director-level officer interrogated Koda for nearly four hours in Birsa Munda Central Jail. The interrogation focused on Koda and his associates’ investment in foreign countries, illegal transactions in Mumbai based companies and money sent through hawala to foreign countries,” a source told IANS.

According to the source, Koda was also asked about money deposited in Swiss banks and mining companies purchased in foreign countries.

The enforcement directorate team had prepared a questionnaire of 125 questions for Koda, who is jail since Nov 30 after his arrest by the state igilance bureau in a separate case of disproportionate assets (DA) case.

Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate officials Oct 31 raided 69 places in eight Indian cities, including houses owned by Koda. The directorate had called Koda for questioning four times in November but he never turned up before it.

Two associates of Koda - Vinod Sinha and Sanjay Chaudhary - have already been declared proclaimed offenders by a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court here after police did not succeed in arresting them. Besides Sinha and Chaudhary, the PMLA court declared hawala businessman Manoj Punamiya, Lalit Jain and Arvind Vyas as proclaimed offenders.

In December last year, the PMLA also granted letter rogatory for probe into assets of Koda and his associates and Enforcement Directorate officials will visit five countries - Thailand, Dubai, Indonesia, Sweden and Liberia - to find out evidence of Koda’s investments.