The Registrar of Companies (RoC) has recommended Nataraj Financials & Services and Luxury Exports for a probe by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO).
These two companies are allegedly involved in the scam involving ex-Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda and numerous related benami accounts. Official sources in the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs said the RoC’s office first received complaints against these two companies for acting as conduits for money laundering. Thereafter, it got inputs from the income tax and enforcement directorate, both of which are conducting separate enquiries into these companies. “Thereafter, we decided to order SFIO investigation into these two companies,” said sources.
A case was earlier registered against Koda by the enforcement firectorate for alleged money laundering, diversion of state funds and making huge illegal investments abroad, including purchase of mines as far away as South Africa.
The income tax department had also been probing cases of disproportionate assets and had conducted raids on alleged properties of Koda in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Chaibasa, New Delhi, Mumbai, Nashik, Lucknow and Kolkata.
Sources said the SFIO investigations would focus on shareholders and beneficiaries of the companies, since these were supposed to be involved in money laundering. The hawala transactions and investigations reportedly run into more than Rs 3,000 crore.
The SFIO investigation is also expected to ascertain the role of Manoj Punamiya, alleged to have acted as a ‘front’ for Koda in many deals. The enforcement directorate till date is learnt to have recovered certain documents which reveal total transactions of over Rs 1,200 crore.