Suspended Gujarat IAS gets temporary bail

Bhuj

Suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma, who is in jail in connection with an alleged graft case, was today granted temporary bail by a local court to attend to his ailing mother.

Additional District Judge J B Dhandhal of Bhuj Court granted bail to Sharma from December 30 to January 6 on a surety bond of Rs 50,000.

Sharma, through his lawyer Bharat Dholakiya, had moved a temporary bail plea, submitting that his mother was ailing and he needed to attend to her.

The court directed the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to finish all forensic-related tests before December 30 as the probing agency demanded a sample of Sharma’s finger prints and signature.

In October this year, Sharma was denied regular bail by a Bhuj court, following which he had approached the Gujarat High Court, but had withdrawn his bail plea from there on December 1.

Sharma was arrested by the ACB on September 30 for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 29 lakh from a private company when he was Kutch Collector in 2004.

According to the complaint, he had alloted a piece of land to the company at 25 per cent of prevailing market rates, enabling illegal benefits to the firm and a loss of around Rs 1.2 crore to the Gujarat state exchequer.

In return, the company allegedly made Sharma’s wife a partner, with 30 per cent holding, in one of its subsidiaries called Value Packaging without any investment made by her and extended a benefit of Rs 29.5 lakh to her, as per the complaint.

Sharma, who faces five corruption cases, had earlier filed a petition in the Supreme Court alleging that he was being victimised by the state government and had sought a CBI inquiry into the cases against him.

However, the Supreme Court had last month rejected his application.

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