Ranchi, Oct 31(ANI): The Income Tax department on Saturday conducted nationwide raids at 70 addresses linked to former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda and others allegedly involved in unaccounted money transaction during his term.

Addressing a press conference in Ranchi, Income Tax Director of Investigation, Ujjwal Choudhary, said: "Search operations are being held at the places related to Madhu Koda, Vinod Kumar Sinha and Sanjay Chowdhary. In total the search operations are going on at 70 places in the cities like Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Chaibasa, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Nasik."

Choudhary also said that during Koda's tenure as the Chief Minister, he was involved in the transaction of unaccounted money.

"According to the information, during the period when Koda was the Mining Minister and Arjun Munda was the Chief Minister and also under the Chief Ministership of Madhu Koda, it seems like deals took place where unaccounted money was transacted. The search operations are being held for that purpose," Choudhary added.

The raids comes after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) registered a case against Koda and eight others for alleged money laundering, diversion of State funds and making huge illegal investments abroad.

The ED filed an Enforcement Case Information Report before the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court in Ranchi on October 10.

Koda has been booked under the PMLA along with three of his State Cabinet colleagues Kamlesh Singh, Bhanu Pratap Shahi and Bhandu Tirkey, besides five others.

Koda is also alleged to have purchased mines worth 1.7 million dollars in Liberia, after he became chief minister of the mineral ich state in 2006 as an independent legislator, third politician in the country to achieve this feat. (ANI)