The Enforcement Directorate (ED) logo.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Patna/New Delhi: 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.
The sources did not specify what was seized from where.