Money laundering: Suspended IAS officer gets HC bail relief

In a major relief to suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma, Gujarat High Court on Thursday granted him bail in a money laundering case registered by the Enforcement Department.

Reacting positively on Sharma’s bail application, Justice AJ Desai rejected the Centre’s request to stay the order for a brief period so agency could approach the Supreme Court.

The Gujarat cadre IAS officer and former Kutch collector Sharma was arrested on July 31, 2016, under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after the apex court vacated an interim stay on his arrest. On January 4, 2018 a special PMLA court denied bail to Sharma and he later approached the Gujarat High Court.

He got bail as the Supreme Court had read down Section 45 of the PMLA that restrained courts from granting bail considering proof of burden to convince the court of innocence lay on the shoulders of the accused. The ED had registered a case against Sharma basis cases lodged by CID (Crime) and Anti-Corruption Bureau of the State Government.

The cases relate to an alleged sanction of Government land at cheaper rate 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.

As per the probe agency’s claim Sharma’s decision caused a loss of Rs 1.2 crore to State exchequer. It also alleged that in lieu of clearing land deal at a cheaper rate Sharma received Rs 22 lakh on his wife Shyamal’s name. ED also claimed that Shyamal invested hardly Rs 1 lakh in a company named Value Packaging and in return she constantly received crores of rupees in her and their children’s accounts in USA via Dubai through ‘hawala’.