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Madhu Koda
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Jharkhand High Court has asked state health secretary to forward medical reports of a former minister and a businessman, who are in jail facing corruption charges along with former chief minister Madhu Koda, to All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi for an assessment of their medical condition.
The order pertaining to former minister Bhanu Pratap Shahi and businessman Vijay Joshi was delivered by a division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Tatia and Justice Aparesh Singh while hearing a petition filed by Durga Oraon alleging that the politicians were using Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) as a sanctuary to avoid detention in the Birsa Munda Central Jail in Hotwar.
The bench told health secretary K. Vidyasagar that a team of AIIMS doctors would study their medical reports and decide if they needed treatment at the super speciality hospital in Delhi. It also directed AIIMS to send a committee of doctors to Ranchi to assess if the available facilities at RIMS were adequate for the two to receive treatment.
The court, which was also informed about Koda’s medical condition, asked the state to ensure he was provided with required treatment facilities either in jail or at RIMS.
Koda has been admitted to RIMS for physiotherapy of his right arm that was fractured after he was involved in a prison brawl over poor quality food.
VIPs using RIMS as a means to avoid jail time was first written about in a vernacular daily.
The court then ordered them to be examined by a board of army doctors. After the board opined that the politicians did not require hospitalisation, they were sent back to jail on December 29 last year.
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Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences in Ranchi that has become a sanctuary for VIP jailbirds |
The court has also directed CBI to file a status report of the investigations done so far in the disproportionate assets cases of former ministers Dulal Bhuiyan, Chandra Prakash Choudhary and Bandhu Tirkey.
CBI counsel Mokhtar Khan informed the court that the investigation agency was facing a manpower crisis and had on August 31, 2010, asked for constables and logistical support from the state government. The government had promised all help.
The high court directed advocate-general Anil Kumar Sinha to look into the matter and ensure that the government provided the promised support to the CBI.
The next hearing has been scheduled for on January 29.
The Enforcement Directorate, that filed a status report of its investigations against Koda and Co. before the court on Tuesday, pegged the scam at Rs 3,500 crore till now. The figure was expected to increase further as more facts were coming to light.
ED counsel A.K. Das said that investigations were also being conducted in several foreign countries where the former ministers and businessmen had allegedly invested “tainted money”.
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