Former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda will face arrest soon after his discharge from a Ranchi hospital with Enforcement Directorate officials today claiming they have enough evidence to nail him.
Former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda will face arrest soon after his discharge from a Ranchi hospital with Enforcement Directorate(ED) officials today claiming they have enough evidence to nail him.
"The arrest is imminent. The evidence is conclusive," ED sources said.
Koda, 38, who got himself admitted to the Abdur Razzak Weavers' Memorial Hospital of the Apollo Group in Ranchi on Tuesday complaining of high blood pressure and stomach ache, was today shifted from the ICU to the ward.
The ED and Income Tax authorities have asked the hospital to inform them before discharging Koda.
Koda faces charges of having amassed over Rs2,000 crore through hawala and illegal investments.
After five days of raids on 70 places in nine cities across the country including Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, Income Tax officials yesterday sealed a room and almirahs at Koda's residence in Ranchi.
The ED sources said that the information obtained from the seized documents and affidavits will have to be put across to Koda for further progress in the case, which can only happen after detailed questioning.
"Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the arrest takes place under section 19. Authorities from both Income Tax department and the ED are waiting for the medical reports of Koda and his subsequent discharge from the hospital," they said.
In Ranchi, the Jharkhand high court today directed the state to submit on November 12 a progress report on the vigilance probe into the disproportionate assets case against Koda and some his former Cabinet colleagues.
A two-member bench headed by chief justice Gyan Sudha Mishra gave the direction on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by activist Durga Oraon in November, 2008 seeking a CBI probe into the assets of Koda and others.
The PIL alleged that former ministers Bandhu Tirkey, Chandraprakash Choudhary, Kamlesh Singh, Enos Ekka and Harinarayan Rai had multiplied their wealth during their tenure in government.
Koda's two aides Binod Kumar Sinha and Sanjay Choudhary were later made parties in the case.
Ekka and Rai are in judicial custody since their surrender before a special vigilance court in September. On October 5, the Vigilance Department had filed charges against Ekka and Rai.
The IT department officials continued their sealing exercises on the properties of Koda and his associates. The searches had begun on October 31.
The ED is also preparing to send notices for production of documents and attendance in person against certain other associates of Koda, the sources said.
The authorities were considering conducting a lie detector test on Koda, the sources said. The ED had registered the case on October 9 against Koda on charges of making huge illegal investments abroad, including purchase of mines as far as in Liberia. Koda was chief minister between February 2006 and August 2008.
He is the first former chief minister and high-profile politician to have been booked under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
Both the departments (IT and ED) will also soon initiate proceedings for attachment of his properties, the sources said.
The ED has filed an Enforcement Case Information Report (equivalent to an FIR) before the Prevention of Money Laundering Act court in Ranchi against the former CM, his cabinet colleagues Kamlesh Singh, Bhanu Pratap Shahi and Bhandu Tirkey besides five others.
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