Former IAS Officer Pradeep Sharma has been sentenced to five years of imprisonment in a 2011 case on irregularities in allotment of government land to a private company, which caused a loss to the public exchequer during his tenure as district collector.The verdict was pronounced by a court in Kutch district on Saturday. Apart from Pradeep, the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate J V Buddha in Bhuj, sentenced urban planner Natubhai Desai, then mamlatdar Narendra Prajapati and then Resident Deputy Collector Ajitsinh Zala to five years imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000 each.
Who Is Pradeep Sharma?
Sharma, a chemistry graduate had joined the joined the Gujarat Administrative Service in 1981. He was promoted to Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1999. In his career, he has served as the Commissioner of Jamnagar and Bhavnagar Municipal Corporations. He was also the collector of Rajkot and Kutch districts in Gujarat. Sharma was previously convicted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in January this year. He is in the headlines again after Kutch Court sentenced him to five years of imprisonment.
All About The Case
The case is in connection with irregularities in the allotment of government land to Saw Pipes Pvt Ltd in 2004 when Sharma was the collector of Kutch. Sharma was found guilty of violating government regulations by allotting 47,173 square meters of land. Notably, this exceeded his authority to allocate only up to 2 hectares. Moreover, investigations revealed that three separate land applications for the same company and purpose were approved in a single day. This violated the rule which mandates consolidated decision-making.
The court further stated Sharma’s sentence would begin after he completes the five-year sentence given by a Sessions court in Ahmedabad on January 20, in a 2004 corruption case.
The FIR in the case was lodged in 2011 against Sharma and the co-accused at Rajkot CID Crime Police station under Indian Penal Code Sections 409 (Criminal breach of trust), 120B (Criminal conspiracy) and 217 (misuse of power by a public servant by disobeying rules in place, for personal gains or benefitting someone from a legal procedure).
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