Jharkhand, November 15: Embattled former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, accused of masterminding a multi-crore money laundering scam, has threatened to file a defamation suit against ”those hatching a conspiracy to tarnish his image before the Assembly polls.” ”I’ll take all those to court who are trying to maglign my image,” Koda told reporters while campaigning in his home town Chaibasa for the recently floated Jharkhand Navanirman Sena that has fielded five candidates in the Assembly elections in the mineral-rich state, including his his wife Geeta from Jagannathpur constituency in Singhbhum.
He said: ”The adversaries were “playing dirty tricks to tarnish my image…I will expose them at an appropriate time.” Koda further reiterated that he would quit politics, if the charges against him were proved.
The former chief minister had yesterday apprehended threat to his life, saying the people who had falsely implicated him could kill him as well. All the charges of illegal investments in various companies overseas levelled against him were baseless, he had claimed.
He had alleged that he was being deprived of the basic fundamental rights as he was kept in isolation for 14 days and not allowed to meet anyone.
He had refused the allegation of leaving the state capital, Ranchi, without informing the ED and IT officials and claimed that he had informed them in writing in this regard so as to participate in the campaigning for the upcoming Assembly election in the State.
The Lok Sabha MP, facing investigation by Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate on charges of amassing over Rs 2000 crore through hawala transactions and illegal investments. The ED has so far arrested Vikas Sinha, brother of Koda’s aide Binod Sinha, in connection with the case.
The ED has issued fresh summons to Koda, the third in a week, to appear before it in Ranchi on November 19. Earlier, it had served summons for appearance on November 13 and 15.
Koda, who was the chief minister between September 2006 and August 2008, won Singhbhum seat in the May Lok Sabha elections.
Prior to that, he was the mines minister in the Arjun Munda government.
His wife is contesting the upcoming elections from her husband’s constituency, Singhbhum. Koda had quit the Assembly seat after he was elected to the Lok Sabha in May this year.
–Agencies