The Income Tax department has begun sealing properties and issued prohibitory orders around the premises of former Jharkhand chief minister Madhu Koda and his associates in the alleged hawala transactions and illegal investments case.

The sealing exercise is done as the owners of these properties are not available at certain places, tax officials said.

The department has also seized some cash as it is continuing its searches, which began on Saturday, on more than 70 premises across the country, they said.

It will soon issue notices for production of documents and accounts along with the individual's presence in the case. Koda was not questioned in detail at the time of searches and will be interrogated further as the documents taken into custody were huge, the officials had said yesterday.

The IT department had claimed that they have found evidence of Rs 2,000 crore in hawala transaction and illegal investments after searches were conducted at Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Lucknow, Nasik, Ranchi, Chaibasa and Jamshedpur.

The searches were conducted after the Enforcement Directorate registered a case against Koda and his associates Sanjay Choudhary and Vinod Kumar Sinha on October 9 on charges of making huge illegal investments abroad.