New Delhi, Sept. 16: Vinod Sinha, a key aide of former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda and a co-accused in the Rs 2,000 crore money laundering scam, was arrested by the CBI from an upmarket locality in south Delhi on Thursday.

A senior CBI official said Sinha had been evading arrest since November 2009, ever since his name first cropped up in the money laundering scam.

“Sinha, who was wanted in the alleged hawala and illegal investments case, is allegedly the main frontman for various investments of Koda in India and abroad. He is a businessman and was the front for managing wealth acquired by the former chief minister. He was also a regular visitor to his house,” said a CBI official.

The CBI had filed FIRs against Sinha and another Koda’s associate, Sanjay Chowdhary, in a special CBI court in Ranchi on August 11 after the agency was directed by Jharkhand High Court to probe the case.

“Sinha has been charged with investing money on behalf of Koda in India and West Asia, including UAE and other countries, by the Enforcement Directorate (ED),” the official added.

Acting on a tip-off, CBI sleuths raided a posh apartment in south Delhi and nabbed Sinha. “His arrest was very important to ascertain the extent of hawala transactions and illegal investment. He is a key man in the scam,”said the official.

“We have also seized some documents from his possession and our officials are scanning them,” he added.

On August 5, the high court ordered the CBI to take over investigations into the disproportionate assets cases against Koda and his former cabinet colleagues, including Harinarayan Rai, Anosh Ekka, Dulal Bhuiyan, Chandra Prakash Choudhary, Kamlesh Singh, Bhanu Pratap Sahi and Bandhu Tirkey. Apart from Koda, Rai, Ekka and Kamlesh Singh are also in jail.

The court’s direction followed a PIL filed by Durga Oraon who sought a CBI probe into the disproportionate assets allegedly owned by Koda and his former cabinet colleagues during their ministerial tenure.

ED and the income tax department are separately investigating alleged illegal investment and hawala transactions against Koda and others. In October last year, ED had filed an FIR against Koda and his associates following which officials from the income tax conducted raids on the premises of Koda and his aides.

“Sinha was a key aide of the former chief minister and earned crores by engineering allotment of mining leases to his own companies or his associates for a commission during the tenure of Koda,” said the CBI official.

According to him, Sinha is alleged to have acquired large number of properties and companies, within and outside the country out of this ill-gotten wealth.

“He also played a major role in routing the ill-gotten wealth of the former chief minister by a network of associates who floated a large number of companies and purchased a number of benami properties,” he added.

Sinha had been evading various law enforcement agencies for several months.

The vigilance court of Ranchi had also issued an arrest warrant against him in February 2007, which remained unexecuted.

Sinha will be produced before a court in Delhi on Friday for obtaining a transit remand and will be taken to Ranchi to be produced before the CBI special judge.