The Enforcement Directorate arrested Bihar-cadre IAS officer Sanjeev Hans and former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA Gulab Yadav in a money laundering case late on Friday evening.
Hans was arrested from his official residence in Patna and Yadav was detained in Delhi under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The arrests were made following fresh raids conducted by the agency on Friday.
In the search, ED found Hans’ involvement in Tender Scam in the Bihar energy department, during the period when he was the principal secretary.
ED official familiar with the matter told HT that Hans was produced before the special PMLA court in Patna and forwarded to Beur central jail till October 29. Gulab will be brought from Delhi to Patna on Saturday.
The money laundering case by the agency is based on a first information report (FIR) registered by Bihar’s special vigilance unit (SVU) against 13 persons, including Hans’ wife, father, brother-in-law, father-in-law and SP Singala construction company. The case was registered on the direction of the ED, which had conducted searches at multiple locations linked to them earlier.
Hans and Yadav had also been accused of sexually exploiting a lawyer of the Allahabad high court on the pretext of helping her get a post on a government panel, but the case had been quashed by the Patna high court in August.
During the investigation ED found that the wives of Hans and Yadav owned a CNG petrol pump at Pune besides a Tyre factory. Sanjiv’s family resides in a flat in Delhi owned by a Bihar contractor Praveen Choudhary.
The official also disclosed that Hans allegedly collected money in the name of his departmental minister and senior bureaucrats.
Hans, a native of Punjab, was the principal secretary of the state energy department but was transferred to the general administration department in August after the ED carried out the first round of searches in this case.
Officials familiar with the matter said Gulab Yadav, a former RJD MLA from Jhanjarpur, was a close associate of Hans.
Last month, ED carried out further searches at the premises of associates with whom IAS Hans had financial dealings. Searches were conducted at five locations in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata between September 10 to September 12.
During the course of search operations, unexplained cash of ₹87 Lakh, 13 kg silver bullion worth ₹11 Lakh (approximately) and 2 kg gold bullion and jewellery worth ₹1.5 crore (approximately) were seized.
In addition to the above, various incriminating evidence (physical/digital) containing details of hawala transactions or banking transactions were also recovered.
