The Jharkhand high court on Thursday directed the state to produce a progress report on November 12 on the vigilance probe into the disproportionate assets case against former chief minister Madhu Koda and some of his former cabinet colleagues.
The two-member bench headed by Chief Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra was hearing a litigation filed by petitioner Durga Oraon in November 2008 seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the assets of Koda and several of his former cabinet colleagues. The litigation alleged that former ministers Bandhu Tirkey, Chandraprakash Choudhary, Kamlesh Singh, Enos Ekka and Harinarayan Rai had multiplied their wealth during their ministerial term.
Later, Koda and his alleged aides Vinod Kumar Sinha and Sanjay Choudhary were made parties through interlocutory application in the case.
On an earlier hearing, the bench had directed the income tax department to furnish relevant documents including I-T returns filed by the former ministers in connection with the DA case.
Ekka and Rai are currently in judicial custody after they surrendered before a special vigilance court in September.
On October 5, the vigilance separtment had filed charge sheet against Ekka and Rai against whom petitioner Kumar Vinod filed a PIL with the vigilance court accusing them of amassing assets running into crores of rupees between April 2005 and September 2008.