Gujarat HC grants bail to Suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma in ACB bribery case, will walk out of jail tomorrow

Ahmedabad:

The Gujarat High Court today granted bail to the suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma in the last of the around 10 cases against him which was lodged by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on March 9 this year in connection with allegedly taking bribe of Rs 25 lakhs from a shipping firm while he was collector of Bhavnagar.

The court of Justice A J Desai granted him regular bail paving way for his walking out of Bhavnagar jail where he was lodged since his arrest on March 9 soon after coming out of Sabarmati central jail in Ahmedabad. He was released from jail after getting bail in a Money laundering case and spending around 20 months in the jail.

The court has also asked Sharma to deposit his passport and not to travel abroad without the permission of the court and not to tamper with the evidences. He should also appear in the trial court at Bhavnagar whenever required.

His counsel Rajesh J Goswami today said that the court has accepted his contentions and granted bail at the personal surety of Rs 25000/-. He would walk out of the jail tomorrow after completion of formalities.

He had argued before the court that the case was filed with mala-fide intention and he should also be granted bail because the maximum punishment in the case for his client was only 7 years and he had already been charge-sheeted in the matter.

Notably, Sharma is accused in at least 10 different cases for allegedly misusing his position and bribery. The last criminal case was registered against him in Bhavnagar on March 9, the day he was released on bail from Sabarmati central jail in Ahmedabad a money laundering case. A special ACB court in Bhavnagar had rejected his bail plea in this case in March itself after which he moved to the high court. He was however granted temporary bail for five days last month for installation of CCTV cameras at his residence here.

Goswami in his plea had said that since 2010, at least ten FIRs have been lodged against Sharma with “mala fide intention” and “just with a view to see that the petitioner is kept behind bars”.

According to the petition, the ACB lodged the fresh FIR at 6.15 am on Friday and Sharma was picked up by a team of 15 to 20 policemen at 10 am from the gate of Sabarmati Central Jail when he was walking out after spending 20 months in jail in an alleged money-laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate.

The defence counsel had argued that the allegation against Sharma in the ACB case were more than ten years old and the case is based on a statement recorded by the ED in 2014. He was not questioned even once by the ACB officials while in he in jail earlier on.
The ACB FIR is lodged in Bhavnagar based on a statement of Sahay Raj, Managing Director of a private shipping firm, Shoft Shipyard, recorded by the ED officials during its probe in the money-laundering case. Raj alleges in the statement that he gave Rs 25 lakh bribe to Sharma for releasing funds.

In the statement, Raj said, “During the period December 2008 to May 2009, Pradeep N Sharma was MD of Alcock Ashdown (Gujarat) Limited. During this period, he had given money to the tune of Rs 25 lakh for release of the payments from Alcock and Ashdown (Gujarat) Limited to his company. He also deposed that he had given the said amount to Saifuddin Bhuria.”

In the bail petition Goswami agrued that this FIR was filed for personal vengeance and with mala fide intention at the instance of the state government.

Notably Sharma who was also collector Bhuj was said to be close to the then CM of Gujarat Narendra Modi once but had fallen from the grace of the government after his role in the sensational case of alleged spying of a woman architect came to fore.

DeshGujarat