Ranchi: With Madhu Koda continuing to defy
summons from probe agencies, Union Minister of State for Home
Ajay Maken on Saturday said the Centre was not averse to asking the
CBI to investigate the multi-crore money laundering charges
against the former Jharkhand chief minister.
"If the Enforcement Directorate and the Income Tax
department are not able to bring the corruption charges to
their logical conclusion, the CBI could be entrusted with the
job," Maken told a press conference here.
Maken was reacting to Koda's repeated failure to appear
before the ED and the IT for questioning following the
unearthing of a Rs 2,000 crore hawala transactions and illegal
investments.
He rejected Koda's assertion that he was still part of the
UPA government at the Centre.
Asked that in case of a hung assembly whether the Congress
would have a post-poll alliance with independent MLAs facing
corruption charges, he retorted, "The Congress would prefer to
sit in the opposition to touching corrupt and tainted
persons."
Without naming the RJD and the JMM, the union minister
said the Congress could do little during the 23-month Koda
rule as other alliance partners "patted him claiming he was
doing good work and there was no need to remove him."
Reacting to CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechuri's comments that
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should not have gone to the US
as Parliament was in session, Maken said, "That is incorrect.
A senior minister like Pranab Mukherjee was there ... and in
this communication age one can keep in touch from anywhere in
the world."
PTI
First Published: Saturday, November 28, 2009, 20:02