Bihar's departments for Social Welfare and Rural Development were apparently developing their personal welfare and rural experience — in Europe, on a contractor's tab. The contractor received the tenders. The officers received the itineraries.
Bihar's government suspended two IAS officers — Yogesh Kumar Sagar (2017 batch, Social Welfare Department) and Abhilasha Kumari Sharma (2014 batch, Rural Development Department) — after the Enforcement Directorate connected both to a contractor named Rishu, who had arranged all-expenses-paid trips to Europe, luxury mobile phones, tablets, and interior decoration for their homes in exchange for tender manipulation. The Social Welfare officer was overseeing schemes meant to benefit Bihar's poor. The Rural Development officer was overseeing schemes meant to improve Bihar's villages. Both were simultaneously enrolled in a personal development programme underwritten by the contractor. The arrangement ran smoothly until the ED noticed that a contractor's travel and home renovation budget had an unusual number of IAS mailing addresses.