Madhu Koda arrested

RANCHI: The Jharkhand Vigilance Bureau on Monday arrested former chief minister Madhu Koda in the multi-crore mining and money laundering case.
He has been remanded to 14-day judicial custody. A joint team of Jharkhand Police and state vigilance bureau arrested Mr Koda after he repeatedly refused to respond to summons from the Enforcement Directorate for questioning. Mr Koda described his arrest as part of Congress’ conspiracy to keep him away from election campaigning. “My electorate will give a fitting reply,” he said. The arrest is considered a significant step towards cracking down on alleged money laundering and corruption network in Jharkhand. The ED has informed the Lok Sabha secretariat about his arrest as Mr Koda is currently a member of the 15th Lok Sabha. The ED has already filed an ECNR against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Sources in ED said it would interrogate Mr Koda to find about the large monetary transactions that were made allegedly on his behalf within the country as well as outside. Mr Koda was arrested in Chaibasa, about 175 km from Ranchi, and was brought here later by a police team. He is likely to be taken to New Delhi for questioning. A final decision to this effect, however, is yet to be taken as ED and vigilance officials can also question him in Ranchi. Mr Koda had earlier said that he would be available for questioning only after the completion of Jharkhand assembly polls on December 18. The former Jharkhand CM has fielded his wife Geeta Koda, besides four more candidates in the ongoing assembly polls in Jharkhand. Mr Koda is alleged to have laundered thousands of crores during his stint as the chief minister between 2006 and 2008. ED’s probe into the money laundering operation, which is spread from Singapore to Thailand and from Dubai to Liberia, is set to balloon into one of the biggest bribery and corruption scandals in the country. Incidentally, Mr Koda’s arrest also spells trouble for his three former cabinet colleagues including Bandhu Tirkey, Kamalesh Singh and Bhanu Pratap Shahi. All three have been accused in disproportionate asset cases.