Case 29 · Public money

Madhu Koda. A chief minister convicted over a coal block

Allocation 2007; convicted Dec 2017

Convicted. Three years.

3,167 days since Recorded outcome: Convicted. Three years..

Human cost

A state's mineral wealth allocated through a chief minister's office

Financial cost Est

A coal block in Jharkhand recommended to a private company against process

What happened

Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda was convicted in December 2017, along with a former Union coal secretary and others, of criminal conspiracy and corruption over the allocation of the Rajhara North coal block to a Kolkata company, and sentenced to three years.

Claim against record

What the government said

Koda maintained his innocence and appealed; he was subsequently barred from contesting elections after the Supreme Court declined to suspend the conviction.

What the record shows

Convicted. Three years.

The conviction took a decade from the allocation. It is one of the few on this ledger where a head of government was actually convicted, and it is recorded here for that reason as much as any other. The wider allocations system that produced it had already been struck down by the Supreme Court by then.

What accountability should have looked like

Allocation by auction, which is what the law now requires, arrived at without needing a decade of litigation first.

Ministers and office-holders responsible

Jharkhand Chief Minister; convicted Dec 2017, sentenced to three yearsMadhu Koda
Screening committee that processed the recommendationMinistry of Coal

Naming who held the portfolio is a matter of public record. It is not by itself a finding of personal responsibility for any death or any rupee.

Sources

T1 primary record · T2 reporting · T3 partisan

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Cite or export this case

Citizens' Accountability Ledger, "Madhu Koda. A chief minister convicted over a coal block" (Allocation 2007; convicted Dec 2017), case-85. https://whoisresponsible.xyz/case/case-85/

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