Why Patna High Court granted bail to IAS officer Sanjeev Hans in money laundering case

• Hans has been in jail for about a year for the offence of money laundering and a chargesheet has already been filed, but charges haven’t been framed to date.
• There’s no possibility of the trial starting in the near future.
• No criminal history aside from the Rupaspur case, which became part of the ED’s money laundering investigation.
• No possibility of tampering with the evidence, which is documentary in nature in the present case.
• Investigation about Hans has been completed, and “stringent conditions” can be imposed on him while granting bail.

Key defense arguments:

• Advocate Farrukh Khan who represented Hans argued that his client was innocent and framed in the case.
• ED “maliciously” carried out search and seizure proceedings when the matter was pending in the high court.
• ED has not produced any independent evidence linking the petitioner to any monetary
  transactions involving alleged proceeds of crime.
• Without such direct financial proof, the allegations under PMLA are purely speculative and devoid of legal merit.

Prosecution’s allegations:

• Additional Solicitor General S V Raju argued Hans misused his public office and position to obtain undue pecuniary advantages through corrupt means.
• During his tenure between July 3, 2014 till 2024, he “enriched himself illicitly” to the extent of approximately Rs 90 crore from the activities constituting the scheduled offence.
• He has also engaged in layering and laundering of these proceeds of crime through a network of close associates.
• The assets acquired using such proceeds have been deliberately placed in the names of his family members and associates to conceal his connection with the proceeds of crime and to portray the tainted assets as untainted.

Background

The money laundering case against Hans stems from the FIR filed against him in Rupaspur for alleged offences of gangrape, blackmail, coercion and illegally using his position in January 2023.

The high court had dismissed the FIR, but it sparked another matter of financial dealings between Hans and former Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLA Gulab Yadav, who was also named in the case.

Subsequently, the Bihar Police’s Special Vigilance Unit registered an FIR against Hans for allegedly possessing assets disproportionate to his known income, and said it uncovered dubious transactions during its probe into the rape allegations. This FIR laid the foundation for the ED’s money laundering investigation under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

In December 2024, the ED temporarily seized assets worth Rs 23.72 crore tied to Hans’s associates, including land in Nagpur and flats in Delhi and Jaipur – all allegedly acquired with illicit funds. The agency also recovered gold jewellery valued at Rs 1.25 crore, luxury watches worth Rs 65 lakh, silver bullion priced at Rs 11 lakh, and shares valued at Rs 60 crore held in proxy accounts. Investigators froze more than 70 bank accounts containing suspicious deposits totalling Rs 6 crore.

The ED accuses Hans of having cultivated relationships with powerful Bihar politicians who enabled his illicit activities. His role as chairman of the Bihar State Power Holding Company Limited is under scrutiny, with allegations that he awarded contracts worth Rs 3,300 crore in return for kickbacks.

Hans was arrested on October 18, 2024, alongside Gulab Yadav, under PMLA charges after evidence emerged of an extensive money laundering operation he allegedly orchestrated. He was lodged at Beur Central Jail.

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