Ranchi: The Jharkhand High Court Thursday granted bail to former chief minister Madhu Koda in an illegal mining case, but he will continue to stay in jail in connection with other cases.

A single-judge bench of Justice H.C. Mishra granted bail to Koda in a case related to allegedly taking bribe to allocate iron ore mines to a private steel company when he was chief minister between September 2006 and August 2008. There were allegations that Koda accepted a bribe of Rs.13 crore from a private steel company to allocate iron ore mines.

Koda is in jail since November 2009 in different cases. He is at the centre of a Rs.2,500 crore money-laundering scam. The cases against Koda are pending in Prevention of Money Laundering Act Court (PMLA) filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), in vigilance court and CBI court of Ranchi. There are four cases against Koda including graft and money laundering.

Koda’s scam came into the limelight when the Income Tax (IT) department and ED conducted raids at 69 places in the country including the houses of Koda in October 2009.