Feb 21,2010
Ujjawal Chaudhary, senior Income Tax (I-T) officer,
who led the probe into the multi-crore Madhu Koda scam,
may have been on the verge of unravelling the link between
politicians and hawala traders when he was abruptly shifted this week.
Sources said the team led by Chaudhary, who has been taken
off the Koda probe and moved to the assessment wing, had
gathered strong evidence linking politicians and others to hawala
operators engaged in laundering black money abroad. Chaudhary
was transferred when raidswere still continuing
at Chaibasa in Jharkhand.
The official and his colleagues are learnt to have hit a `jackpot’
during their raids on Pune-based businessman Ajay Bafna, who
was under surveillance since October last year when the first
indication of his dealings with Sanjay Chaudhary,
close associate of the former Jharkhand chief minister
Madhu Koda, surfaced.
The team struck gold also while raiding two hawala
traders in Delhi. The search of the business premises of one
Vipin Kapoor, a hawala operator based in Karol Bagh,
yielded details of accounts of banks in Switzerland
and other countries which seem to belong to politicians.
Kapoor is a familiar face for tax authorities, having been
convicted for gold smuggling earlier. But evidence seized
from him surprised the raiding team given the likely
connections with influential accounts.
Within Jharkhand, raids by I-T personnel led by Chaudhary
over three days beginning February 16, reveaked disclosures
of hundreds of crores in concealed incomes of bureaucrats
and businessmen. Those targeted included Manohar Lal Pal,
personal aide to current Jharkhand chief minister Shibu Soren.
A former employee of Coal India Limited who was sacked for
allegedly forging his educational qualifications, Pal, faced with
evidence, declared assets and investments totalling up to Rs 65 crore.
Similarly, two businessmen engaged in mining —
much of it allegedly illegal — have also admitted to having
concealed Rs 30 crore from the tax authorities.
A similar admission from a Kolkata-based chartered accountant,
accused of helping the scamsters fudge accounts and who was
confronted with papers showing he had not declared income
worth Rs 12 crore, had appeared to be on the cards when
Chaudhary was called off.
The findings of the investigation have generated a
sensation in Jharkhand and other places like Delhi
and Mumbai as slueths unearthed sordid details of the
brazen loot of public money. Those who are facing
charges include officials as well as engineers working
in the mining and electricity departments.
In one particular instance, the team stumbled upon
payment of Rs 4.6 crore allegedly made by cheque to
functionaries of the Koda administration by an
Andhra Pradesh-based construction company.
In return, the company was allegedly allowed to
nflate the cost of the project it was assigned under the
Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana.
The explanation offered by the tax authorities makes
Chaudhary’s transfer seem innocuous.
“He will be based in Patna and his jurisdictions
will include both Bihar and Jharkhand.
He has just been shifted to the assessment
wing because he is best placed to assess the
value of whatever the accused in the Koda
scam and others have been found to possess,” it was said.
This does not wash with many because officers are
seldom transferred mid-way through an investigation.
Chaudhary, having spent just seven months at the last
station, was not due for a transfer either.
He took charge of the investigation on July 14, 2009.
What is puzzling political circles is that the I-T’s investigation
is all against politicians who, with the exception of NCP’s
Kamlesh Singh, former colleague of Koda, are not part
of the UPA.
In fact, many in Congress would be relishing
the discomfiture of Shibu Soren over the raid on Pal,
considering that he preferred the BJP for an alliance.
Chaudhary’s transfer has been taken to the judiciary,
with a group of lawyers seeking the intervention of the
Jharkhand High Court which is hearing the PIL against Koda.
But members of his team remain wary of more transfers.
It is learnt that even during the course of investigation,
Chaudhary and his team mates did not get enough
cooperation while probing business dealings of Koda
and his associates in Mumbai and elsewhere.
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