New Delhi: “Bhai, mobile bahut achha hai (brother, the phone is really nice),” the IAS officer tells the Patna-based contractor who had gifted her an iPad and an iPhone a month earlier. In another purported WhatsApp conversation, a second IAS officer makes an urgent request of the contractor—5 kg of mangoes; allegedly using the word “mango” to ask for Rs 5 lakh in cash. “Jee bhaiya (yes, brother),” the contractor responds.
In an affidavit submitted before the Patna HC, which ThePrint has accessed, ED identifies the recipient of the iPhone as IAS officer Abhilasha Kumari Sharma, and the officer who asked for 5 kg of ‘mangoes’ as IAS officer Santosh Kumar Mall. Their benefactor has been identified as Rishu Shree, a Patna-based contractor with alleged ties to top Bihar government officials, especially in urban development & housing department (UDHD).
The ED’s affidavit was filed in the last week of November.
Shree landed on the ED’s radar as a result of its investigation into money laundering charges against now-suspended senior IAS officer Sanjeev Hans, once a top civil servant in the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government.
The agency has alleged that Shree not only exercised “undue influence over transfer and posting of officials” but also “sponsored both domestic and foreign trips of senior IAS officers” and their families. According to the ED, in one instance, the contractor even allegedly paid a priest Rs 9.84 lakh for conducting a religious ritual for the family of one of the IAS officers.
The IAS officers under scrutiny over ties to Shree include Abhilasha Kumari Sharma, Santosh Kumar Mall, Anand Kishor, Yogesh Sagar, Dharmendra Kumar and Sunil Kumar Yadav, among others. Their links with Shree, the ED alleges, date back to their tenures with the UDHD and Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation (BUIDCO).
The probe agency made the revelations in court to counter Shree’s writ petition seeking quashing of the ED proceedings against him.
In a rejoinder to the ED’s affidavit, Shree’s counsels rebutted the agency’s allegations with respect to his association with each of these officers.
His counsels further submitted that the “entire case of the ED is premised on conjectures and surmises of the ED itself rather than a complete appreciation of the material it seeks to rely upon”. “The manner in which the ED has initiated, and is continuing, the prosecution of the Petitioner under the PMLA shows that the Impugned ECIR was registered solely to target and harass the Petitioner in one way or the other,” Shree’s counsels added.
The ED had raided Shree’s firms and premises in July last year and January this year. According to the agency, he admitted during questioning that he had paid commissions to senior government officials ranging from 2 percent to 3.5 percent of the total billed amount of tenders.
Based on its findings, the ED’s Special Vigilance Unit booked Shree, Hans, and unidentified government officials in April. The agency opened an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) based on an FIR in the matter. It also wrote to the Bihar government seeking registration of an FIR against several other IAS officers, including Sagar and Sharma.
ThePrint sent queries relating to the charges to the official email IDs of IAS officers Sunil Kumar Yadav and Abhilasha Kumari Sharma. Detailed queries have also been sent to Anand Kishor, Yogesh Sagar and Dharmendra Kumar via WhatsApp and attempts to follow up through phone calls had not yielded a response till the time of publication. ThePrint also sent queries via WhatsApp to Asif Iqbal, officer on special duty (OSD) to Santosh Kumar Mall, who cited time constraints for inability to respond.
Sagar served as managing director of BUIDCO from March 2024 till February this year, later posted as joint secretary in the social welfare department. Kishor led BUIDCO briefly between November 2021 and January 2022 and was elevated to the post of additional chief secretary last month. He also served as Principal Secretary in the UDHD.
Kumar was earlier transferred to West Champaran as District Magistrate, while Sharma is currently additional CEO of Bihar government’s JEEVIKA initiative. Mall served as UDHD principal secretary and principal secretary in the state’s water resources department.
Yadav currently serves as a special secretary in the state’s labour resources department.
The ED has claimed that Shree and his associates admitted in their statements that Yadav was transferred to UDHD with Shree’s help.
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‘Trips to Europe, payment for rituals’
In its affidavit, the ED alleged that Rishu Shree financed domestic and international travel for several senior officials of the Bihar government, including flights and accommodation.
For instance, the agency submitted that Saheel, an employee of Shree’s firm Reliable Group, paid Rs 1.20 lakh to Surat-based travel agent Lambuji Tours for processing visa applications of IAS officer Yogesh Sagar and his five family members. The agency submitted that Sagar and his family departed from New Delhi on 22 June last year and returned on 30 June from Austria, after staying in Vienna, Salzburg, and St Wolfgang.
“Investigation further revealed that an amount of Rs 4.27 lakh has been paid to Lambuji Tours through banking channel from the account of Avlokita Ashok (wife of Yogesh Kumar Sagar) and rest amount of Rs 17.65 lakh has been paid to M/s Lambuji Tours in cash by Mr Saheel Sinha, an associate of Rishu Shree and Jainam Engicon Pvt Ltd,” the ED submitted.
It further alleged that Jainam Engicon—a Gujarat-based firm of Shree’s business associate Brijesh Narola—was removed from BUIDCO’s blacklist on 16 May last year, a month before Sagar embarked on the foreign trip with his family.
“Evidence indicates that the travel expenses were jointly borne by Rishu Shree and M/s Jainam Engicon Private Limited (entity controlled by Brijesh Narola). The proximity in timing between the revocation of the debarment and the foreign trip, coupled with the funding of the travel by interested parties, strongly confirms Rishu Shree’s influence in the decision-making processes within BUIDCO through extending pecuniary benefits to its senior official,” the agency alleged in its affidavit.
“It is pertinent to mention that M/S Jainam Constructions was awarded the project of Chapra Storm Water Drainage during the tenure of Shri Yogesh Kumar Sagar as MD, BUIDCO,” it added.
The agency further alleged that Sagar had invoices issued in the names of his relatives to conceal actual expenses incurred on the foreign trip. It also claimed to have found, after searches at the premises of Patna-based travel agent Tinish Kumar of the Shanvi Corporation, costs amounting to Rs 10 lakh on several domestic tour bookings made by Sagar.
Through the same travel agent, the agency alleged, Shree financed Rs 13 lakh of Abhilasha Kumari Sharma’s family expenses. Sharma also allegedly received Rs 3 lakh from Shree into her aunt’s bank account, the ED said, citing WhatsApp conversations and a copy of the bank passbook.
According to the ED, Shree also made a payment of Rs 9.84 lakh to a priest, Inderjeet Sharma, to carry out religious rituals for Sharma’s family. Additionally, Shree gifted her a Mont Blanc pen, an Apple iPad and an iPhone. The ED attached pictures of the devices, along with WhatsApp chats, to support the allegations.
Regarding a foreign trip of IAS officer Dharmendra Kumar and his wife, the ED stated that Shree arranged $10,000 in equivalent funds for the journey while Kumar and his wife were touring Europe between 16 July and 26 July last year. It attached an extract from a purported WhatsApp conversation between Shree and Sharma in which they discussed Kumar’s trip.
Similarly, the ED attached an excerpt of a purported conversation between Mall and Shree, in which the former urgently requests 5 kg of mangoes, allegedly using the word “mango” to secure 5 lakh cash. “Jee bhaiya (yes, brother),” was Shree’s response to the demand.
“Investigation has revealed that Rishu Shree maintained close and influential relations with the then Principal Secretaries of the Urban Development and Housing Department (UDHD), namely Anand Kishor and Santosh Kumar Mall. Statements recorded under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), corroborated by forensically extracted WhatsApp chats, establish that Rishu Shree, through Anand Kishor, exercised undue influence over transfer and posting of officials within the Bihar government,” the ED submitted before the court.
“Further investigation has also brought to light that Rishu Shree, who had direct access to and influence over officials supervising the implementation of the Namami Gange Project, sponsored both domestic and foreign trips of senior IAS officers, notably Yogesh Sagar and Amarendra Kumar Singh, during their tenure as Managing Directors of BUIDCO,” it added.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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