40 Gujarat companies involved in Koda scam

Jharkhand’s tainted ex-chief minister Madhu Koda’s Rs 2,000 crore scam has a strong Gujarat connection. The state income-tax department has identified 25 fake companies from Gujarat (out of a total of 40 companies) which claimed to be creditors of Balaji Bullion, a stock trading company that handled Koda’s business.

Around 20 of the 25 companies are registered in Ahmedabad and the other five at different places in Gujarat. Sources in Ahmedabad said that, in the last two months, the department here had received a list of 40 companies which were to be investigated for their possible involvement in the Koda scam. I-T sleuths found, after investigation, that these 25 companies had transacted huge amounts using their e-banking facility from Mumbai.

The department’s investigations so far have resulted in tracking down of illegal transactions involving nearly Rs35 crore. Sources said that this amount could increase significantly later.

“Of the 40 companies we investigated, 25 exist only on paper,” a source said. “They had been used to carry out illegal transactions of around Rs35 crore. Their operators had dealt with Balaji Bullion, a Mumbai-based share trading company.”

In their addresses, they had mentioned that they were Ahmedabad-based companies but their bank accounts and money transactions had taken place in Mumbai.

Later, the department received a second list of 20 companies for investigation. These companies were based in different places, including Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Gandhidham. Sources said that the Ahmedabad-based companies of the second list had given their addresses in Navarangpura, Mithakhali and some other areas of the city.

Claiming to be creditors of Balaji Bullion, the fake companies had traded using black money. The sources said that just one person in Mumbai had been moving money from one account to another through e-banking. Incriminating evidence about the remaining 15 companies is yet to be disclosed as they are still being investigated.

Senior officials of the I-T department in Ahmedabad refused to comment, saying that no such probe was going on. But the sources said that the entire investigation had been conducted on the basis of information received from the income tax department in Mumbai. The amount involved in the illegal transaction was only a small part of the total scam, the sources added.

“Connecting Koda directly with these companies would be premature at this juncture as investigations are not yet over,” a source said. “It will take years of investigation before any definite conclusion is reached in the case."