Income Tax conducts 70 raids on Koda, associates

The income tax (IT) department, which is probing a disproportionate assets allegation against former Jharkhand chief minister and MP Madhu Koda and his associates, Saturday conducted raids at 70 places in eight cities and discovered documents relating to illegal transactions worth Rs.2,000 crore, an official said.

'In the Mumbai raid, we have come across documents which indicates that Rs.300 crore to Rs.400 crore were sent to foreign countries through different mediums including hawala. More than Rs.100 crore has been sent through hawala. We are interrogating Lalit Jain and Arvind Vyas who sent the money through hawala,' Director (Investigation) of the IT department Ujjwal Kumar Chaudhary told reporters here Saturday.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials and IT sleuths jointly conducted the raids and are interrogating Jain and Vyas.

Chaudhary said: 'We have seized documents relating to investment and money sent to Dubai, Thailand, Malaysia and other foreign countries.'

According to him, the kingpin behind these deals is Vinod Sinha. Another associate of Sinha's is Sanjay Chaudhary - both close associates of Madhu Koda.

All transactions have taken place in the last two years, he said.

'Sinha and Sanjay Chaudhary have not appeared before the IT department officials. We request both of them to talk to us in the next 24 hours otherwise we will issue a red alert and initiate legal processing against them,' said the IT official.

According to him, Sinha had invested Rs.1,300 crore in three Mumbai-based companies in the last one and a half years.

IT officials have also seized documents relating to investment in Lucknow and Kolkata.

The raids were conducted by IT and ED officials in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Chaibasa, New Delhi, Mumbai, Nashik, Lucknow and Kolkata. In Ranchi alone, raids were conducted at 25 places.

Scores of graft cases have been pending against Madhu Koda. The Jharkhand vigilance department had lodged an FIR against the former chief minister for amassing wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income.

According to reports, Koda invested more than Rs.4,000 crore in mines in South Africa.

Madhu Koda, who was operated upon last week after he complained of stomach ache, was shifted to his house in Ranchi Friday. He was Jharkhand chief minister from September 2006 to August 2008.

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