ED seizes pricey watches, jewellery after raids against Bihar IAS officer

PATNA/NEW DELHI, July 17: The ED has seized more than a dozen costly watches, around a kg of gold jewellery and some investment papers after conducting raids against Bihar-cadre IAS officer Sanjeev Hans, former RJD MLA Gulab Yadav and others in a money laundering case, official sources said Wednesday.
The federal probe agency launched the searches at about 20 premises in Patna, Delhi, Amritsar, Chandigarh and Pune on Tuesday.
Hans, a 1997-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, is currently the principal secretary of the Bihar energy department.
Yadav, a former MLA of the Lalu Prasad-led Rashtriya Janta Dal, has represented the Jhanjharpur assembly seat in Madhubani district between 2015-2020.
The ED case filed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) stems from a January 2023 FIR of the Bihar Police (Rupaspur police station in Patna) on allegations of sexual exploitation of a woman lawyer and linked corruption and extortion charges.
The police complaint came on the orders of a local court the woman had approached.
A total of 15 watches, including those of the Rado and Rolex brands, 1,100 gram of gold jewellery and some investment documents have been seized, the sources said. (PTI)