PATNA: Bihar police’s Economic Offences Unit (EOU) on Thursday conducted simultaneous raids at two locations linked to an accountant at the Hajipur Municipal Council office, Manish Kumar, on charges of amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
The EOU had received a complaint of corruption against him. Following this, the probe agency registered a case against the accused accountant and obtained a search warrant from the Special Vigilance Court in Muzaffarpur.
An EOU team arrived in Hajipur early Thursday morning and initiated search operations at two locations, his residence in Bagmali and his office premises at the Hajipur Municipal Council.
During the raids, prima facie evidence was found indicating the accumulation of assets worth Rs 2,02,31,500 in excess of his known income—an amount approximately 208.57 percent higher than his legitimate income.
Details regarding the total value of the accused accountant's assets will be available once the raids conclude. In a statement, EOU officials said that transaction of Rs.10 lakh deposited in different banks accounts of Kumar has been restricted.
In another operation, EOU sleuths carried out raids at the official residence of senior IAS officer Sanjeev Hans in Patna in connection with multi-crore tender scam. Hans was not present in the house at the time of search operation.
Two senior IAS officers--Yogesh Kumar Sagar (2017 batch) and Abhilasha Kumari Sharma (2014 batch)—have already been put under suspension. They are facing allegations of money laundering.
SVU had arrested Rishu Shree, a contractor, in connection with the tender fraud and money laundering case on May 28. A day before, his house was searched by the probe agency, which yielded Rs.2.5 lakh in cash and jewellery worth Rs. two crores.
Both suspended IAS officers have been accused of receiving favours from the contractor Rishu Shree. Earlier Enforcement Directorate had conducted an inquiry against them and subsequently wrote to SVU to initiate further action.