Ranchi, Sept. 3: Jharkhand High Court today pulled up the CBI for its slow progress in the Madhu Koda disproportionate assets case.
A division bench of Chief Justice Prakash Tatia and Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh while hearing a PIL filed by Durga Oraon said the agency ought to conduct a detailed, fair and fast inquiry into the scam running into crores of rupees.
The court directed the income tax department and the Enforcement Directorate to speed up investigations and furnish a status report in the case. The Enforcement Directorate informed the bench that investigations abroad had revealed illegal investments to the tune of Rs 130 crore, which could be linked to Koda.
The counsel for the directorate said ill-gotten money had been invested abroad through aides of Koda who was the chief minister then. As many as 45 different cases have been registered in this connection and investigations are on in full swing, the counsel said.
The income tax department and the ED also gave a clean chit to former ministers Chandra Prakash Choudhary and Dulal Bhuiyan. Both the I-T and the ED said after going through the records and documents of the two, nothing objectionable was found and they appeared to be not guilty.
The bench while hearing the case also directed the CBI to file a status report on the investigations so far against all the accused including Koda and his aides. The bench also ordered the CBI to furnish its chargesheet in the rural electrification scam case pending against Koda.
The case will be taken up on November 26.
The petition was filed by Oraon in 2008 for seeking indulgence of the high court to order the CBI and other agencies to crack the whip against the accused other than Koda and his former colleagues including Bhanu Pratap Shahi, Chandra Prakash Choudhary, Dulal Bhuiyan, Anosh Ekka, Bandhu Tirkey and Kamlesh Singh.
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