Giving out details of the money laundering racket to the Jharkhand High Court, the ED – in a status report – said of the total amount, Koda alone swindled around Rs.1,340 crore of government funds. His aides Arvind Vyas (Rs.1,020 crore), Binod Kumar Sinha (Rs.915.2 crore), Vijay Joshi (Rs.152 crore), Manoj Kumar Punamiya (Rs.59.69 crore), Vikas Sinha (Rs.45 crore) and Kamlesh Kumar Singh (Rs.4.43 crore) also stand charged with siphoning off and investing the ill-gotten money.
The ED has filed a complaint against all of them under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in a special court at Ranchi, charging them with siphoning off public money. The high court had granted Vyas provisional bail in 2011 but Koda and his partners are behind bars. They are facing trial in several cases filed by the CBI and the ED. The ED has already attached properties of the accused worth approximately Rs.120 crore. It has also sent letters of request to Dubai, Indonesia, Thailand, Liberia and Sweden. So far, only Sweden has responded to the ED’s letter. Investigators suspect that over Rs.200 crore was wired from India and invested in the real estate business in Dubai.
