A close aide of former Jharkhand chief Minister Madhu Koda has been arrested from Jamshedpur. Vikas Sinha is the first person to be arrested in the Rs 4000-crore illegal assets case after the Enforcement Directorate's nationwide raids on Saturday.

Vikas is the brother of Vinod Sinha, who is the right-hand man of Koda and is also believed to have been a party to the scam along with another businessman Sanjay Chaudhary. He was being interrogated by the ED officials since last four days. He will be produced in Ranchi court today.

Vinod Sinha's lawers are meeting Income Tax officials.

Besides, hawala traders Arvind Vyas and Manoj are emerging as key players in scam.

Earlier in the day, the Enforcement Directorate issued an alert to airports across the country to prevent Binod Sinha and Sanjay Chaudhary from fleeing the country. They have been barred from fleeing the country.

Koda who is at the centre of the whole affair, is likely to be arrested as soon as he is released from hospital. He was taken out of the ICU on Thursday. Dr PD Sinha of the Apollo Hospital said Koda would be kept under observation and was unlikely to be discharged today.

The former CM has been accused of large-scale corruption since 1999, when he became a minister in the new state of Jharkhand in the year 2000.

Income Tax sources say his assets that amount to 1/5th of Jharkhand's budget, grew after he got the key mines portfolio in this mineral-rich state.

But sources say he was not alone in this whole affair. He was helped by two associates -Binod Sinha and Sanjay Chaudhary.

Binod Sinha owns a tractor company in Chaibasa, the district where Koda began his political career. He used Koda to broker mining deals. His assets are worth Rs 200 crore.

Koda and Sinha have been good friends for years. Koda allegedly acquired assets and made investments in Sinha's name.

In return, Sinha pushed Koda to give lucrative mining contracts to businessmen who paid him money.

In the last eight years, by brokering these deals, Sinha allegedly made Rs 200 crore.

But Sinha has denied his involvement in the scam. "I am a small businessman. This is a political conspiracy," he says.

Sanjay Chaudhary, who runs a small construction material business in Jamshedpur. He hit the jackpot after he started supplying construction materials for public works projects, a business that brought him close to Koda.

He too invested Koda's money in various projects, properties and countries. In return, he used Koda's contacts to build his personal fortune.

Today Chaudhary allegedly owns stakes in 16 companies - two of them are Dubai-based and several of them are big power and mining entities.