Ranchi: Former Jharkhand Chief Minister
Madhu Koda, now in Birsa Munda Central jail here, was today
questioned for over four hours by Enforcement Directorate (ED)
sleuths on alleged hawala and mines transactions.
"Madhu Koda was questioned from 11 am to 3.45 pm by a
team of ED headed by the agency's Deputy Director D N Podar.
The team have come from Delhi," a jail official said here.
Enforcement Directorate sources said during the
marathon grilling, Koda was asked on an ED questionnaire on
alleged illegal investments and hawala transactions.
The questioning took place 82 days after the
nationwide joint raids by the ED and Income Tax in 70
premises, including those of Koda and his associates.
The questioning will continue tomorrow, the jail
official said.
Soon after the raids on October 31, IT Deputy Director
Ujwal Choudhary had made a disclosure of Rs 2,000 crore scam
covering illegal investments and hawala transactions.
Another senior IT official had said the files of
mining department between 2004 and 2008 had been examined as
the raids revealed purchase of mines in Liberia and other
foreign countries.
The raids were a follow-up action after the ED booked
Koda and seven others on October 9, 2009 in connection with Rs
4,000 crore scam involving the mine purchases.
Koda's aides Binod Sinha and Sanjay Choudhary were
still at large despite facing arrest warrants from IT and
state Vigilance Bureau.
Koda was arrested on November 11, 2009 by the state
Vigilance Bureau, which is probing a disproportionate assets
case against him, and sent to judicial custody.
Koda's former cabinet colleagues Enos Ekka,
Harinarayan Rai and Kamlesh Singh were also in judicial
custody in connection with separate DA cases.
While Rai and Ekka had won in the recently concluded
assembly elections, Singh lost.
A Lok Sabha member, Koda had fielded his wife, Geeta
who won the Jagannatpur assembly seat in the elections.
PTI
First Published: Friday, January 22, 2010, 00:46