Will Kripashankar tide over alleged involvement of Rs 4,000 crore scam?

Madhu Koda, Ex-Chief Minister of Jharkhand and Kripashankar Singh, Mumbai Chief of Congress 

Mumbai’s chief of Congress and Kalina’s MLA Kripashankar Singh, for the past more than a year has been entangled into a heap of controversies. Last year raids were conducted by the Income-Tax department and the Enforcement Directorate into Kripashankar’s alleged involvement of the Rs 4,000-crore Madhu Koda scam. Investigators are examining, among his other assets, savings bank accounts of his family that show disproportionately large transactions between 2006-07 and 2008-09, and several discrepancies in documents that suggest forgery.
Eight savings bank accounts of his family members and close associates are under the scanner. Three of these accounts show cash deposits and transfers of nearly Rs 65 crore in two years by Kripashankar’s wife Maltidevi Singh and son Narendra Mohan Singh, neither of whom has known sources of income. These transactions unearth at a time when Kripashankar was All-India Congress Committee (AICC) observer for Jharkhand, exactly when Koda, an independent MLA then, was sworn in CM with Congress support. Further, at that time his son, Narendra Mohan married Ankita, daughter of Jharkhand politician Kamlesh Singh, in April ’08. Ankita’s dad Kamlesh Singh was then water resources minister in the Koda government and is a key accused in the scam.
Both Koda and Kamlesh Singh were arrested in November last year; the Jharkhand vigilance bureau filed preliminary charge sheets against them for holding assets disproportionate to known sources of income. Kamlesh Singh’s assets were estimated at nearly 130 per cent more than his sources of income. However, it is alleged that a considerable sum of scam money may have been diverted through his daughter, son-in-law and the latter’s father, Kripashankar. Also, on investigations it is revealed that the Koda diary, incidentally, mentions a “Kripashankar a/c” with several entries against it. Kripashankar has denied it was him, but investigators have placed him and his family under scrutiny.
Kripashankar’s family owns properties in projects executed by one of the real estate companies which deposited huge amounts into his son’s account; the company also has infrastructure projects in Jharkhand. Also, there was a sudden rise in the wealth and property acquisitions of the Kripashankar family in Mumbai during the years Koda held sway in Jharkhand (first as mines minister in the Arjun Munda-led BJP regime, and later as CM). This includes a large duplex apartment near Mumbai airport, a bungalow on Bandra’s Carter Road, known as one of the costliest property prices of real estate in Mumbai, office spaces and shops at key locations in projects by either of the two real estate companies associated with the family, and land in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
Kripashankar’s wife Maltidevi, who happens to be religious and god fearing person, holds commodity forward trading accounts which, on paper, show losses. Further, investigations found discrepancies in the personal details provided for the two accounts—one is in the name of Maltidevi Kripashankar Singh, while the other sub-broker account is in the name of Maltidevi Uma Shankar Singh (the middle name is her late father’s). Investigators also do not rule out the possibility of other benami transactions and investments that are more difficult to unravel. It is also alleged that the modus operandi of the family seems to have been to use two bank accounts, one for cash and other for deposits, which were then transferred into other accounts for investments into real estate, commodities markets. The role of the bank too has come under scrutiny. During the same period, Kripashankar who came to Mumbai in the ’70s began his career as a potato/onion vendor and later was Minister of State for Home in the Vilasrao Deshmukh government. Besides being the Congress’s city unit president, he’s now the party MLA from Kalina suburb.
But that election too is in imbroglio. The affidavit filed under Rule 4-A for the October 2009 Maharashtra Assembly polls does not mention the duplex apartment under immoveable assets held by spouse; nor does it disclose four other properties either held by his wife or in which she has financial interest. This became the subject of an election petition filed by one of Kripashankar’s rivals from Kalina constituency, Chandrakant G. More of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena in the Bombay High Court.
Also, Kripashankar appears to have acquired a second PAN card in complete violation of law. His election affidavit 2009 mentions number CFYPS989P as his PAN, but in the affidavit he filed in September 2004 for the assembly election, he gives his PAN as AVAPS1485L. Possessing two PAN cards is a crime and cannot possibly be an oversight, says an investigator. Was the second PAN card acquired to conceal transactions that take the trail back to Koda, Kamlesh Singh and others in the scam? However, Kripashankar says he has returned one of the cards and also denies any links with Koda and his associates, and insists his relationship with Kamlesh Singh is purely at a family level. He also terms the entire episode as fabricated without any truth in the allegations. It is nothing but a political conspiracy hatched by his political rivals.”
Now, the Bombay high court was informed on Thursday that two investigation agencies were probing allegations against Mumbai Congress chief and Kalina MLA Kripashankar Singh of having amassed massive wealth disproportionate to his known source of income. An ex-minister of state for Home, Singh filed an affidavit in which he denied all charges and dismissed the allegations as being "baseless and politically motivated'' by PIL petitioner Sanjay Tiwari. The EOW in its affidavit said they scrutinized the PIL and felt the allegations failed to come under the purview of the agency. The affidavit filed by DCP Vasant Dhobale said copies of the petition were already marked to specialised agencies like RBI, I-T, CBI, ACB, Enforcement Directorate. The court called for others to file their affidavit and the next hearing is scheduled for August 5. Three agencies which filed affidavits in court were the I-T department, ACB, Maharashtra and Economic Offences Wing, Crime Branch, CID, Mumbai. The ACB on the other hand said a probe was on. It said Singh's property documents and that of his family were being verified.