PATNA, June 4 -- The continued crackdown on corruption in Bihar since the installation of the Samrat Choudhary government has raised as much curiosity among the people as the officials, as everyone is trying to read the signals in the new dispensation. The biggest of them was the inevitable arrest of Rishu Shree alias Rishu Ranjan Sinha alias Rishu Shrivastava by the Special Vigilance Unit (SVU) on May 27 after he got rebuff from the Patna High Court. Having got a long lease since the raids of enforcement directorate (ED) in 2024, his arrest has already led to the suspension of two senior IAS officers - Yogesh Kumar Sagar and Abhilasha Kumari Sharma - and more are said to be in the line of fire. However, the Opposition has started questioning the delay in lodging an FIR even after suspension. "This is baffling and clear indication that the Bihar government is yet to find courage to wriggle out of the old system which allowed free rein to Rishu Shree to play with the system. Further investigation by ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act would depend on filing of FIR. What is happening does not evoke confidence that the big fish will be caught, as names of many senior officers have surfaced in the case," said RJD MP from Buxar Sudhakar Singh, adding the delay was understandable as it involved senior IAS officials. Singh said the Rishu Shree episode was a test for the Samrat government to walk the talk on 'zero tolerance to corruption'. "Picking up small fries is easier, but when it comes to bigwigs the system develops cold feet. The delay means sabotaging the case, as this would have not happened had there been an involvement of junior officers or political leaders. I had to resign from the Nitish government as soon as I flagged corruption issues. During my brief tenure I got a hang of the state of affairs," he added. According to a senior police officer, the SVU had lodged the first FIR almost 1.5 years ago and it was first sent to the Economic Offence Unit (EOU), but it was referred to the home department as it involved senior IAS officers. "From there, it reached the SVU after seeking legal opinion. Even though the FIR was lodged, the case remained on cold burner, until recently when things picked up under the Samrat government," he added. Additional chief secretary, general administration department, B Rajendra, and ADG (SVU) could not be contacted despite repeated attempts. However, SVU sources said the agency officials were in Saharsa to examine the documents of tenders allotted to companies of Rishu Shree. With the name of IAS officer Sanjiv Hans also figuring in the list of officials floating around in media having connection with the alleged tender mafia Rishu Shree, the officer's lawyer Farrukh Khan issued a statement to defend his client, who has already served jail sentence and faced suspension in another case of corruption and was granted bail by the Patna High Court. "Hans has no transaction or relationship with Rishu Shree. Rishu also denied in his statement to ED that he had any kind of transaction with Hans. Allegedly he has given a list of other departments of Bihar government where his companies executed work, and Sanjeev Hans was never posted in those departments," said the lawyer to clarify his client's position. Regarding allotment of one work during the tenure of Sanjeev Hans in the water resources department, he made it clear that the tender of a World Bank sponsored project was awarded as per procedure to a qualified agency on the direction of a high-level committee. But Hans is just one of the many officers in the long list, who allegedly enjoyed the largesse of Rishu Shree, the man who is said to have penetrated deep inside the government system to manipulate tenders and transfers and operated through shell companies allegedly having patronage of senior officials. "The fact is that the Rishu Shree episode unfolded during the investigation of another case involving Hans in which the SVU also filed FIR. It gradually led to a large network involving many bigwigs during the interrogation of Rishu Shree. Many names were also mentioned in the diary of Rishu. ED also tracked financial trail to zero in on the beneficiaries of his tender game," said another police officer. He said the ED was conducting a thorough investigation into shell companies linked to Rishu Shree and five big departments of the Bihar government and the officials who manned them were under scanner. Earlier, ED had also sent separate notices to some officers and even their wards. "It is a fact that the kind of clout Rishu Shree enjoyed is not possible without patronage, as he is neither a big businessman nor part of any policy making mechanism. I have been raising the issue of consultants being roped in by departments for long. Rishu Shree may also have got entry through consultants operating as agents of his sham companies due to patronage of some insiders and made hey," said Sudhakar Singh. While most top officials are tight-lipped on it, an official familiar with the matter said the modus operandi of Rishu Shree was akin to insider trading, with his planted individuals exploiting confidential, pre-decisional bid information to gain an unfair advantage in connivance with the officials. "The companies backed by him quoted the lowest bid to walk away with the tenders. During interrogation by ED, it came to light that he often got 10-12% share in each of them, while he passed on 5-6% to the officials concerned. Besides, he provided other services to them," he added....