The nation-wide raids in connection with the Madhu Koda scam included a search of the Lucknow premises of the Director of IVRCL-Infrastructures and Projects Ltd, D K Srivastava, from where Rs 50,000 in cash and jewellery worth Rs 15-20 lakh were recovered.

The money trail, investigators believe, leads back to Latehar, Garhwa and Palamau districts, in the heart of Maoist territory in Jharkhand.

Holding the energy portfolio, Koda had given job orders for the districts, large parts of which remain powerless, under the UPA’s flagship programme Rajiv Gandhi Vidyutikaran Yojana to IVRCL, allegedly at a rate much higher than approved in the contract. Jharkhand State Electricity Board Chairman A K Chugh had recommended a Vigilance probe into the matter soon after he took over in May.

All the relevant files in the case have been seized by a joint team of Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate officials. Srivastava could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.

In Latehar, Garhwa and Palamau, IVRCL fetched three separate contracts for Rs 93.95 crore, Rs 105.91 crore and Rs 143.85 crore, respectively, on December 30, 2006. Subsequently, the job orders issued by the JSEB hiked the sums to Rs 129 crore, Rs 152.48 crore and Rs 185.33, respectively (a copy of this is with The Indian Express).

As per the contracts, IVRCL was to electrify 78,267, 1,10,607 and 1,15,068 houses belonging to BPL families in the three districts, respectively, by the end of this year. But IVRCL has so far electrified only 50,591, 27,462 and 42,001 BPL homes.