Gujarat high court dismisses former IAS officer Pradeep Sharma's discharge pleas

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Tuesday rejected two applications by former IAS officer Pradeep Sharma seeking discharge from an alleged money laundering case and a case of alleged corruption and forgery when he was Kutch district collector.
While refusing to grant any relief to Sharma in these two cases, Justice Samir Dave directed the trial courts to complete the proceedings preferably in six months by conducting hearings on a day-to-day basis.
Sharma had challenged lower courts' orders by which he was refused discharge in both the cases - in money laundering case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in 2018, and the case of corruption and forgery in 2021.
Sharma has been facing a dozen-odd criminal cases since 2008. He was seeking discharge in the money laundering case, in which he was booked by the Enforcement Directorate in 2016 on the basis of two scheduled offences registered against him in 2010 by CID (crime), Rajkot zone. The former IAS officer has been accused of transferring money to his family members in their accounts in various countries.
The second case that Sharma wanted to be dropped was an FIR registered in 2014 under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and for forgery. This was on allegations of accepting undue favours from a Gujarat-based company, Welspun, for making a parcel of land non-agriculture by undercharging the company in 2004. The prosecution's case is that Sharma's wife, Shyamal, was made a 30% partner in a company named Value Packaging, which had a long-term contract of supplying packaging material to Welspun. Shyamal was allegedly paid Rs 29 lakh.