AHMEDABAD: A special
anti-corruption court in Bhavnagar on Friday once again rejected the bail application filed by suspended IAS officer
Pradeep Sharma in connection with
graft charges.
The court had in March denied bail to Sharma before the
anti-corruption bureau (ACB) filed chargesheet against him. On Friday, special judge
M J Parashar said that the mere filing of a chargesheet in the case does not change the situation and Sharma’s arguments for bail remained more or less similar to what he had to say during the hearing of his earlier bail application.
On March 9, ACB filed an FIR with
Bhavnagar police station stating that when Sharma was managing director of Bhavnagar-based Alcock Ashdown (Gujarat) Ltd in 2007-08, he had allegedly demanded and received Rs 25 lakh from a contractor named Sahayraj Savarimutthu. It was allegedly for granting approval for payments to Sahayaraj.
Sharma was detained and arrested as soon as he came out of Sabarmati central jail after the HC granted him bail in connection with the money laundering case.
Sharma was first arrested in 2010 by ACB sleuths from Bhavnagar in connection with irregularities in allotment of land in Bhuj. Later, he faced charges of favouring a private firm by allotting land at much lower price than market rate and then benefiting from the company by making his wife a 30% partner with the company’s subsidiary firm without any investment.
There are 10 different FIRs lodged against Sharma in last eight years.
