2 co-accused to turn approvers against ex-IAS Sharma in land graft case

The former IAS officer has been accused of allotting land to Welspun Group by granting non-agricultural (NA) land permission at a discriminatory rate when he was the Kutch Collector in 2004. It has been alleged that Welspun returned the favour by making Sharma’s wife, Shyamal Sharma, a partner in Value Packaging — a firm that has long-term contracts for supplying packaging material to Welspun. Sharma is facing proceedings by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for forgery.

Milak is a witness in the PMLA case against Sharma and has been named as an accused in a 2014 FIR for offences under IPC sections 465, 467 and 471 (forgery), and under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA). Milak, who was a director at Welspun Group and a partner at Value Packaging, in his plea to turn approver, had submitted that he falls under the category of “accomplice” and can be treated as an “eye-witness”. He “would be helpful in preventing the escape of the prime offender” and “advance the cause of justice”, the submission stated.

Chakravarti — another director at Welspun Group — had also moved two applications seeking grant of pardon by making him an approver with respect to two FIRs filed with the Rajkot CID in 2010. In the first FIR, he was not named as an accused, but was named in the charge sheet filed in 2015 for offences under PCA.

After being named as an accused in the second FIR, Chakravarti had submitted that he “ought to have been made a witness rather than an accused”. If made an approver in the current case, the evidence he would give “would ultimately help in advancing the cause of justice, which will be in the interest of successful prosecution of the prime offender (Sharma),” the submission stated.

Chakravarti has been cited as a witness in a 2018 FIR against Sharma lodged at the ACB police station in Kutch.