Vikas Sinha, an associate of former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda, was on Friday arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in Ranchi for his alleged role in hawala transactions and illegal investments.
Sinha, brother of another associate Binod Sinha, was produced before a local court where the ED sought police remand. Sinha was sent to 14 days custody by the court.
Sources in the ED said Sinha was allegedly involved in investing and routing Koda's money through hawala channels.
Sinha, who was arrested when he appeared before the ED, is the first associate of Koda to be taken into custody by the directorate, among the eight people it has summoned for questioning in the multi-crore scam.
"Vikas Sinha has been arrested," Deputy Director, ED Prabha Kant, told newsmen in Ranchi. "He is being questioned in connection with the alleged hawala and illegal investments amounting to over Rs 2000 crore," said a senior IT official.
The IT official also said a couple of other persons were also being questioned, including Koda's personal assistant Harendra.
Sinha, who was arrested when he appeared before the ED, is the first associate of Koda to be taken into custody by the Directorate, among the eight people who were summoned for questioning in the multi-crore scam.
The ED and the IT officials were, however, awaiting the appearance of Binod Kumar Sinha and Sanjay Choudhary, who were summoned by the IT to present themselves by 11:00 am on Friday to explain certain transactions.
The IT had on November 2 served notices on them to appear before the Additional Director of Income Tax (Investigation) in connection with the continuing searches and seizure operations at seventy places in nine cities across the country since Saturday. PTI
