PATNA: Bihar Police’s Special Vigilance Unit (SVU) on Wednesday filed a chargesheet against seven accused, including senior IAS officer Sanjeev Hans, in a government tender scam.
Hans, a 1997-batch Bihar cadre IAS officer, has been untraceable since contractor Rishu Shree was arrested on May 27.
Pankaj Darad, Additional Director General (ADG), SVU, confirmed that the chargesheet had been filed in the special vigilance court against seven accused. In the 4,000-page chargesheet, the investigating agency claimed to have collected substantial evidence of the accused's involvement in the case.
“The probe agency has enough evidence to prove the accused’s involvement in the award of government contracts to Rishu Shree and other companies at the latter’s behest,” Darad said, adding that investigations against other suspects were still underway.
Besides Hans, the chargesheet names Santosh Kumar, Pawan Kumar, Mumukchhu Choudhary, Tarini Das and Umesh Kumar Singh. The ADG said evidence had also been found against government officials Mumukchhu Choudhary, Tarini Das and Umesh Kumar Singh.
According to investigators, Tarini Das, who was posted as engineer-in-chief in the building construction department, helped companies linked to Rishu Shree secure at least 10 government contracts. Joint secretary in the finance department Mumukchhu Choudhary and BUDCO executive engineer Umesh Kumar Singh were also alleged to have favoured him.
Rishu Shree, Santosh Kumar, Tarini Das, Mumukchhu Choudhary and Umesh Kumar Singh are currently in jail, while Sanjeev Hans and Pawan Kumar are absconding.
Investigators said evidence of large commission payments had been uncovered during the probe. SVU teams also conducted raids in Sitamarhi and Saharsa.
Sources said Rishu Shree had helped an Ahmedabad-based company secure the Kosi barrage contract and had also assisted a private company where Pawan Kumar was serving as director.
Hans has been accused of providing Rs 90 lakh to Gayatri Devi through Sunil Kumar Sinha.
Two senior IAS officers, Abhilasha Sharma and Yogesh Kumar Sagar, have already been suspended. SVU teams recently conducted searches at their residences in Patna and seized documents related to the award of government contracts.
During raids at locations linked to Rishu Shree, investigators recovered 99 property deeds and gold jewellery worth more than Rs 2.5 crore. His assets have been estimated at over Rs 265 crore.