Jan 21, 2025 12:21 PM IST
A sessions court on Monday sentenced former IAS officer Pradeep Sharma to five years in jail and fined him ₹75,000 in a corruption case.
A sessions court on Monday sentenced former IAS officer Pradeep Sharma to five years in jail and fined him ₹75,000 in a corruption case dating back to 2004 when he was the collector of Kutch district in Gujarat. The court of principal district and sessions judge KM Sojitra convicted him in a case registered by Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) pertaining to the allotment of a piece of land to Welspun Group at a price that allegedly caused a loss of ₹1.2 crore to the government exchequer.
The court found Sharma guilty section 13 (2) (criminal misconduct by a public servant) and section 11 (public servants obtaining an undue advantage without consideration) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. He was sentenced to five years in jail and fined ₹50,000 fine under section 13(2), and given a three year sentence and fine of ₹25,000 under section 11, public prosecutor Kalpesh Goswami said, adding both the sentences will run concurrently. Sharma is currently lodged in a jail in Bhuj in another corruption case.
The court conducted a joint trial for three corruption cases related to the allotment of land to the Welspun Group, Goswami said. As per the case detail, Sharma had allotted land to the company at a price which was 25 percent of the prevailing rate, causing a loss to the government exchequer.
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In return, the Welspun Group allegedly made Sharma’s wife a 30 per cent partner in Value Packaging, one of its subsidiaries, and extended her a benefit of ₹29.5 lakh. Sharma was arrested by ACB on September 30, 2014 for allegedly accepting ₹29 lakh bribe from the private company when he was the collector of Kutch in 2004. Sharma, who is facing several corruption cases, had been at loggerheads with the state government when it was headed by Narendra Modi.
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