The Enforcement Directorate has seized about Rs 90 lakh in cash and 13 kg silver bullion after it undertook fresh searches in a money laundering probe against Bihar-cadre IAS officer Sanjeev Hans, former RJD MLA Gulab Yadav and some others.
The raids were conducted this week at two locations in Delhi and few places on Mumbai and Kolkata.
During the first round of raids, the ED confiscated 15 luxury watches worth approximately Rs 40 lakh from Hans' premises in Patna, along with 1,100 grams of gold.
According to sources, ED team has raided two locations in Delhi linked to a middleman, who allegedly helped Hans and one of his batchmates exchange bribes.
The batchmate of Hans, who is 1997 batch IAS officer, owned a real estate business in Mumbai, and he sought help from Hans to sort government matters in exchange of bribes paid through a middleman in Delhi.
Sanjeev Hans had served as private secretary to then food and consumer affairs minister Ramvilas Paswan before returning to cadre and serve as principal secretary energy.
The Patna High Court in August had quashed a state police FIR lodged against Hans by a woman, who accused him of rape.
The complainant had alleged that she was raped by Hans and Yadav.
The court was of the view that “no offence is made against the petitioner (Hans)” and the “story propounded by the complainant” in her FIR lodged “after much delay” appeared to be “false and fabricated”.
Yadav and Hans has established business ties
Yadav is a former legislator of former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) and has represented the Jhanjharpur assembly seat in Madhubani district between 2015 and 2020.
Though the Patna High Court on 6 August quashed the case against Hans, ED officials said that the case stands against Yadav, and, hence, the money laundering probe is being continued.
“Hans has established business ties with Yadav. There is a joint venture between Yadav and Hans's wife to come up with a CNG station in Maharashtra's Pune among other businesses. So investigation into Yadav's impropriety will rake up Hans also,” said an ED official.
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