The nation-wide raids in connection with the Madhu Koda scam included a search of the Lucknow premises of the director of IVRCL-Infrastructures and Projects Ltd, DK Srivastava, from where Rs 50,000 in cash and jewellery worth Rs 15-20 lakh were recovered.
The money trail, investigators believe, leads back to Latehar, Garhwa and Palamau districts, in Jharkhand?s red corridor.
Holding the energy portfolio, Koda had given job orders for the districts, large parts of which remain powerless, under the UPA?s Rajiv Gandhi Vidyutikaran Yojana to IVRCL, allegedly at a rate much higher than approved in the contract. Jharkhand State Electricity Board Chairman AK Chugh had recommended a Vigilance probe into the matter soon after he took over in May.
All the relevant files in the case were on Wednesday seized by a joint team of Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate officials. Srivastava could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.
In Latehar, Garhwa and Palamau, IVRCL fetched three separate contracts for Rs 93.95 crore, Rs 105.91 crore and Rs 143.85 crore, respectively, on December 30, 2006. Subsequently, the job orders issued by the JSEB hiked the sums to Rs 129 crore, Rs 152.48 crore and Rs 185.33, respectively.
As per the contracts, IVRCL was to electrify 78,267, 1,10,607 and 1,15,068 houses belonging to BPL families in the three districts, by the end of this year. But IVRCL has so far electrified 50,591, 27,462 and 42,001 BPL houses. But JSEB had already paid IVRCL Rs 107.6 crore, 127.30 crore and Rs 156.80 crore for these districts respectively till November 8.