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Bribezillas All

The Rs 4,000-crore scam—unmasked

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Bribezillas All
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What the scam is about
Bribes being demanded by functionaries of the Jharkhand government and their aides for new or existing mining leases, and transfer postings

The key players
Madhu Koda and his close friend Binod Sinha, his brother Bikash Sinha, and two other brothers, Sanjay and Dhananjay Chowdhury. All four are businessmen, who were dealing with mining contracts.

When did it happen
Between 2005 and 2008. Madhu Koda was a mining minister in 2005, and from 2006-08, he was the chief minister, the country’s first independent MLA to hold that position, with the support of the Congress, Laloo Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal, and Shibu Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.

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How the scam worked
1.
The bribe money from miners, officials would be paid off to state and national politicians

2. Some of it would be routed through Mumbai-based hawala dealers and their shell companies to invest abroad in places like Dubai and Thailand, and by acquiring mining leases in Liberia and South Africa

3. Shell companies would be created which would invest in infrastructure companies. They would then be favoured to grab state infrastructure projects worth thousands of crores of rupees.

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What’s The Code Word? The I-T Sleuth’s Dictionary

  • Rs 100 means Rs 1 crore. Any figure after a decimal point refers to a sum in lakhs.
  • ‘Ship A/c’ refers to money sent abroad through hawala channels to Dubai and Bangkok for offshore investments
  • ‘Lucky Project A/c’ details various investments made by Koda & Co. Some entries also refer to a Vikas, who is perhaps Vikash Sinha, a key accused arrested by the ED.
  • The beneficiaries: Laloo, Kripashankar, Atul and Pramodji. Do the names correspond to well-known politicians?

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