Ex-IAS officer Pradeep Sharma held in fresh case of land allotment from his tenure as Kutch collector

Several cases of corruption were brought against ex-IAS officer Pradeep Sharma between 2003 and 2006; he was also arrested in a money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate.

The Gujarat CID on March 3, 2023 arrested former IAS officer Pradeep Sharma for allegedly causing loss to the state exchequer by illegally allotting land at an undervalued price in 2004-05 during his tenure as the Collector of Kutch district, official said.

A first information report (FIR) was registered on March 3, 2023 against Sharma, A 1984-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, and two others at CID (Crime) border zone police station at Bhuj in Kutch district, Deputy Superintendent of Police (CID Crime) V.K. Nai said.

"Sharma was detained from Gandhinagar and arrested on Sunday morning," he said.

At the time of his arrest, Mr. Sharma was out on bail in previous cases.

Mr. Sharma, who had claimed in the past that he was victimised by the then-Narendra Modi government in Gujarat, was booked on charges of criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy in this fresh case of land allotment at Chudva village in Gandhidham taluka of Kutch district.

The FIR says that he allotted the government land allegedly at a much lower price by misusing his power as the collector and ignoring the government's provisions of determining valuation, thereby causing loss to the State exchequer. The case deals with the land allocation between November 2004 and May 2005.

Mr. Sharma allegedly entered into a criminal conspiracy with the then resident Deputy Collector and the Bhuj town planner, who have also been named as accused in the case, it says.