Suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma held in graft case

Suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma, who had made allegations against Narendra Modi when he was the Gujarat Chief Minister in the ‘snoopgate’ row, was arrested in a graft case on Tuesday.

The arrest comes a day after the Enforcement Directorate attached his properties in Gandhinagar.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested Mr. Sharma for according undue favours to a firm in Kutch in 2004, when Mr. Sharma was the district Collector.

According to the FIR registered against Mr. Sharma on Tuesday, he allegedly allotted land to a textile company, Welspun, at 25 per cent of the prevailing market rates, causing a loss of around Rs. 1.2 crore to the State exchequer.

For the favour, Mr. Sharma allegedly received Rs. 29 lakh and Welspun made his wife a 30 per cent partner in one of its allied unit, Value Packaging.

He was booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act, sections 11, (public servant obtaining valuable gift from person concerned in proceedings or business transacted by such public servant), 13(1) (d) (using illegal means to obtain valuable things and abusing one’s position or office) and 13 (2) (criminal misconduct by public servant).

A 1984-batch officer, Mr. Sharma was suspended by the government in 2010 after he was arrested on corruption charges. He later got bail.

In August, the Supreme Court rejected his plea seeking a CBI probe into the five cases registered against him and a transfer of the cases outside Gujarat.

Mr. Sharma’s name figured in the ‘snoopgate’ tapes which were released last year by two news portals, regarding the surveillance of a female architect.