PATNA (India) – INDIAN police on Monday arrested a regional politician suspected of embezzling up to US$650 million (S$899.14 million) during his five years in ministerial posts in an impoverished eastern state, officials said.
Madhu Koda was arrested in the Chaibasa district of the state of Jharkhand on charges of possessing wealth exceeding his known sources of income. -- PHOTO: AFP
Madhu Koda was arrested in the Chaibasa district of the state of Jharkhand on charges of possessing wealth exceeding his known sources of income – an offence that can carry a prison term of up to seven years.
‘Following the arrest Koda has been taken to (state capital) Ranchi under high security,’ Chaibasa police chief Akhilesh Jha, who detained the politician, told AFP by telephone from the local capital.
Federal tax officials claim Koda swindled nearly US$650 million during his time as mines minister and chief minister in Jharkhand, known for its mineral wealth, abject poverty and raging Maoist insurgency.
Tax authorities have made dozens of raids and say they have found cash and a paper trail allegedly showing Koda and his accomplices bought mines in Africa and invested in India, Thailand, Dubai, South Korea, Bhutan and elsewhere.
The 38-year-old Koda, known for his lavish lifestyle with frequent foreign trips, worked his way up from being a labourer in an iron ore mine and entered politics, winning a state assembly seat in 2000. — AFP
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