Patna:
A senior Income Tax officer, who led the department in unearthing the multi-crore rupee scam allegedly involving former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda has been transferred.
Ujjwal Choudhary, who till now was the Director (IT-Investigation) at Patna and was in Chaibasa for the last three days overseeing the second wave of raids, will take over as Chief Income Tax Commissioner in Patna.
He replaced Ajay Kumar who was made Director (IT-Investigation), 28 others were also transferred.
"It is a lateral posting. The present rank is also of the Commissioner's rank," Choudhary told PTI.
He ducked a query when asked whether he was happy with the new posting saying he was still a Commissioner rank officer.
Choudhary had overseen raids in 70 premises of Madhu Koda and several of his associates on October 31 last year.
The join raids by the IT, led by Chowdhury, and the ED had unearthed allegedly illegal investments and Hawala transactions of Rs 2000 crore.
He was also conducting another set of raids that began on February 16 in 70 places in thirteen cities across the country. A senior IT officer said documents relating to crores of rupees had been seized during the latest raids.
Senior BJP leader Saryu Roy criticised the Union government for transferring Ujjwal Chaudhary and said it was done to "hush up" corruption by big politicians.