Court grants Koda bail in MoU kickback case

RANCHI: Former chief minister and Chaibasa MP Madhu Koda was granted bail by the high court here on Thursday in the case relating to the receipt of Rs 13 crore from a private steel company and 44 other mining companies. The matter - being investigated by the CBI - relates to receiving huge kickbacks from companies that the state government had signed an MoU with when Koda was state mining minister in the Arjun Munda government.
Koda's counsel Biswajit Mukherjee said the CBI has alleged that a sum of Rs 13 crore was paid by a private steel company to two aides of Koda - Vinod Sinha and Sanjay Choudhary. "The investigating agency is still working on the matter and has not been able to prove that the amount given to his aides actually reached Koda," said Mukherjee, adding that there was no evidence of money being paid by the other 44 mining companies who signed the MoU.
"For the allegations of the CBI to be true, the mining lease should have been granted to the companies. But that is still pending," he said.
Koda had been denied bail twice in the same case but, this time, the court was convinced that the allegations had not been convincingly established by the investigating agency. Koda will, however, remain in jail in connection with several other cases, including charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, cases of disproportionate assets and those filed by the enforcement directorate.