‘Koda associates invested Rs.225 crore in Dubai’

RANCHI - Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda and his associates invested Rs.225 crore in Dubai through illegal money transfers, a lawyer of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said here Thursday.

A PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court Wednesday issued a Letter Rogatory (LR) to Dubai on a petition by the ED.

The LR was issued to Dubai to help the ED in investigation of the Koda scam. The Rs.2,500 crore money laundering scam involving Koda and his associates surfaced in October last year when the ED and Income Tax (IT) department had jointly raided houses of Koda and his associates.

A second round of raids were conducted in February this year. The two departments conducted raids at around 145 places in nine Indian cities in October last year and February this year.

“The ED team during interrogation of Anil Adinath Bastwade, a Hawla (illegal money transfer) trader, came to know that Koda and his associates invested Rs.225 crore in two firms of Dubai,” S.R. Das, a lawyer of the ED told reporters.

He said: “The LR has been issued seeking information and other forms of help from authorities in Dubai.”

According to sources the ED in its petition to the PMLA court said that Bastwade invested around Rs.55 crore in two projects in Dubai - Master Developers at the downtown Jebel Ali Zone 2 - and another Rs.102 crore at Master Developers, Jumeirah village.

Bastwade admitted that the money invested in Dubai was of Koda and his associates.

Bastwade also admitted that Rs.270 crore were sent to Dubai through Hawala transactions by Koda and his associates. Of the Rs.270 crore, Bastwade invested Rs.225 crore in the two firms.

Koda is in jail since Nov 30 in connection with a graft case but his two key associates Vinod Sinha and Sanjay Chaudhary are absconding. Arrest warrants are pending against them since October last year.