Ranchi:
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will question Madhu Koda, the former chief minister of Jharkhand today in Ranchi.
An ED team is expected to arrive in the Jharkhand capital on Thursday to interrogate the former chief minister, facing probe for allegedly amassing assets worth Rs 4,000 crore through hawala transactions and illegal investments.
ED officials will question Koda this afternoon along with two of his associates Sanjay Chowdhary and Binod Sinha, but Koda has been ignoring summons for questioning from the ED.
The former CM seems to have made a miraculous recovery, as he was in top-campaigning form on Wednesday, navigating the streets of Chaibasa, ahead of the assembly elections.
Two weeks ago, he was rushed to hospital with a severe stomachache after investigators accused him of collecting assets worth 4000 crore.
The charges of corruption couldn't come at a worse time. Koda, who was Jharkhand's chief minister between 2006 and 2008, has formed a new political party, the Jharkhand Navnirman Morcha. He has six candidates contesting the elections from the Chaibasa area, including his wife, Geeta.
Koda is a Lok Sabha MP from Chaibasa. Determined apparently to try and make the best of a bad situation, Koda tried to use the corruption controversy as a crowd-puller. He offered to reveal the names of top politicians at a rally; these, he promised, were the people determined to frame him.
Like many other political promises, this remained unfulfilled. All Koda revealed was "National parties and regional parties, are both out to get me, as they cannot digest the fact that an independent rose to such eminence in politics."