Following a fresh FIR pertaining to accepting a bribe worth Rs 25 lakh around a decade ago, Gujarat cadre IAS officer Pradeep Sharma was sent to police remand till March 16 by a special anti-corruption court.
Sharma got relief from the Gujarat High Court in money laundering case as he was given conditional bail last Thursday. However, on Friday as he was to come out of Sabarmati Jail in Ahmedabad, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) personnel arrested him on the charges of corruption and disproportionate properties.
later, the suspended IAS officer was taken to Bhavnagar court. The ACP officials sought seven-day remand but the court granted them time till March 16.
Demanding remand ACB submitted that it wanted to ascertain details pertaining to transactions done by the bureaucrat and where he utilised the money which he got as bribery. Moreover, where the amount invested or kept by him.
As per the FIR filed by ACB in a police station situated in Bhavnagar, Sharma allegedly received bribery worth Rs 25 lakh during the financial year 2007-08 from a contractor working with Gujarat Government’s Bhavnagar based PSU Alcock Ashdown, the company functioning in the area of ship building. At that time Sharma was Managing Director of the state PSU.
During the interrogation related to money laundering case by the Enforcement Directorate, the transaction of alleged bribery with the Alcock Ashdown contractor revealed. The ED officials later on informed about it to the Gujarat ACB officials.
Sharma is faces the cases relate to an alleged sanction of Government land at cheaper rate than the market price to Welspun India limited and its group companies Welspun Power and Steel and Welspun Gujarat Style Rohran in Kutch district as part of the suspected quid pro quo.
The probe agency stated that Sharma had sanctioned the land to the company in 2004 when he was Kutch collector. At that point of time he was also chairman of district land evaluation and pricing committee of Kutch.