Patna: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has alleged that suspended 1997 batch IAS officer of Bihar cadre, Mr Sanjeev Hans accepted a ₹1 crore bribe from a Mumbai-based real estate company to secure a favourable order from the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), during his tenure as private secretary to the late Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan.
According to a prosecution complaint filed by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), Hans leveraged his influence as Paswan’s private secretary between 2014 and 2019 to assist RNA Group, a financially troubled realty firm. The deal, the agency claims, was facilitated by Hans’s batchmate and IIT-Delhi alumnus, Vipul Bansal, who was employed by the company at the time.
The complaint details how Hans allegedly intervened in proceedings before the NCDRC, which operates under the Consumer Affairs Ministry – then headed by Paswan – to delay orders and prevent the arrest of Saranga Agarwal, the wife of RNA Corp’s chairman. The ED cites Bansal’s statement claiming Hans secured two hearing dates in the commission in exchange for the bribe, which was allegedly routed through a contact named Shadad Khan.
Hans, a Bihar cadre, was arrested in October 2024 on charges of amassing illicit assets worth over ₹100 crore — including ₹60 crore linked to a ₹3,300 crore contract during his tenure as chairman of the Bihar State Power Holding Company Ltd. He remains in judicial custody at Beur Jail in Patna.
The ED’s complaint, taken cognisance of by a special PMLA court last month, also names Hans’s associates, including former RJD MLA Ghulab Yadav, as part of a wider corruption network. In total, 13 individuals have been arrested and 33 accused across three complaints in the ongoing investigation.
Hans’s legal counsel, Advocate Changez Khan, has dismissed the charges as “frivolous and fabricated,” accusing the ED of launching a smear campaign. “Despite these malicious efforts, Mr. Hans remains confident that the truth will prevail,” Khan said in a statement.
