Raids on Bihar babu unearth Rs 2.6 crore disproportionate assets

The movable and immovable assets owned by Anand, a 2007-batch IAS officer were nearly 20 times more than his known sources of income.
Representational Image. (File | PTI)
Representational Image. (File | PTI)

PATNA: Disproportionate assets worth more than Rs 2.60 crore amassed by Bihar IAS officer Deepak Anand were unearthed in raids by the state’s Special Vigilance Unit (SVU) on premises in four towns in Bihar and Jharkhand linked to him, said officials on Thursday.

The movable and immovable assets owned by Anand, a 2007-batch IAS officer who earlier served as the district magistrate of Saran and Banka districts, are nearly 20 times more than his known sources of income, said an SVU official. The amount of his wealth could go up as SVU officials are still assessing their worth, he added.

Raids were conducted at Anand’s parental house in Sitamarhi town; his room at the circuit house in Patna, a hostel of Katihar Medical College, where his wife Shikha Rani is a second-year student of MD; and his in-laws’ house at Godda in Jharkhand on Thursday and Friday.

SVU and economic offences wing (EOW) officials, who interrogated Shikha Rani in Katihar on Friday, also learned that she owned two shops at a shopping mall in Patna. Besides, Rs 2 lakh cash and jewellery worth Rs 5 lakh were recovered at her parental house in Godda, said sources.

Anand, who had secured the 55th rank in the UPSC civil services examinations of 2006, had shot to fame in 2013 while serving as the district magistrate of Banka. He used to provide free IAS coaching to needy and talented graduates on the premises of a school in Banka.

He had shot to headlines in March 2017 when he, as the DM of Saran district, suspended the arms licenses of some criminal-turned-politicians of RJD such as former MP Prabhunath Singh, former MLA Kedarnath Singh and their kin Sudhir Kumar.

Having already registered a case against Anand for acquiring hugely disproportionate assets during ten years of service as an IAS officer, EOW authorities are planning to register an FIR against him and his wife under the PMLA. Anand’s salaried income after deduction of income tax since 2007 comes to around Rs 60 lakh, said an official, adding that he would be arrested shortly.

Anand was removed as Saran DM in March 2017 for alleged dereliction of duty that led to the boat mishap in the Ganga in which 24 people were killed during Makar Sankranti last year. He had since been waiting for posting and living at the circuit house in Patna.

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