30 Nov : Former Jharkhand CM Madhu Koda was arrested on Monday by the Vigilance Bureau in a disproportionate assets case, weeks after defying repeated summons by various agencies probing the alleged hawala scam.
“He has been arrested and is being brought to Ranchi,” Inspector General of Police (Vigilance), M V Rao said in Ranchi on Monday.
“We have reached a stage when his arrest was necessary. We had taken the arrest warrant from the competent court,” he added.
The police picked up 38-year-old Koda from his Dumri residence just before he was to address an election meeting at Sareikela, official sources said.
The arrest followed the independent MP’s defiance of the Vigilance Bureau’s summons to present himself before it on 27th November, forcing it to issue fresh summons on 4th December in the disproportionate assets case.
Koda defied three summons by the Enforcement Directorate, one by the Income Tax department and one by the Vigilance bureau.
The Vigilance Bureau is investigating Koda’s disproportionate assets case and the ED and IT department are looking into the hawala transactions and illegal investments allegedly involving him and his aides.
Koda had written to the ED that he could not appear before them as he did not have some documents which required to be placed and that he was busy in electioneering.
Koda similarly wrote to the state Vigilance Bureau, saying he would appear only after the assembly elections concluded on 18th December.
Assisted by the ED, the Income Tax department had on 31st October claimed that it had “clinching evidence” against Koda and his aides of alleged involvement in Rs 2000 crore hawala transactions and illegal investments.
Koda’s close associates, Binod Sinha and Sanjay Choudhary, were absconding and arrest warrants have been issued against them by both the ED and the IT.
The ED had arrested Sinha’s brother, Vikas, who is now in judicial custody.
The Enforcement Directorate had registered a case against Koda on 10th October.