Suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma did not get any immediate relief as a special court in Bhuj reserved its order on the bail application filed by him till Friday. The Anti-corruption Bureau (ACB) of the state had arrested the suspended IAS officer under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), 1988 on September 30 from Ahmedabad for allegedly allocating land to Value Packaging, a private company manufacturing packaging material in Kutch at below the market rate during his tenure as Kutch collector in 2004. The ACB says Sharma's action caused a loss of around Rs1 crore to the state exchequer but the officer drew financial benefits worth Rs 29.5 lakh through his wife Shyamal's partnership in Value Packaging. After his arrest, Sharma had moved the special ACB court here for bail and the matter came up for hearing in the designated court of Judge Jaydev Dhadhal on Tuesday. Arguing the matter of Sharma, advocate Bharat Dholakia said prima facie, there was no case against the officer as the government had regularised the said land allocation to Value Packaging by collecting additional Rs1 lakh from the company. "The investigating agency is saying that the matter had come to light in 2011 but no FIR was registered. According to law, FIR has to be registered at the instance of getting first information in cognisable offences but in this case it was registered after three years. This means the police did not find the matter a cognisable offence in 2011. Now what circumstances have changed?," Dholakia asked alleging the case was filed to keep Sharma behind bars. Incidentally, the issue of land allocation to Value Packaging had come to the notice of Criminal Investigation Department (crime) while it was investigating a 2011 case of alleged fraudulent allocation to companies of Welspun Group in Kutch by Sharma. Dholakia further argued that Deepika Panneervel, wife of former additional chief secretary P Panneervel and one Sunil Millat were other persons involved in the deal but Sharma was being singled out and the investigation was biased prima facie. However, district prosecutor Kalpesh Goswami said that it was the government's prerogative to take action against erring officers. "This case pertains to your role in the said offence. Sharma's legal liability increases since he is an IAS officer and he committed the alleged crime knowingly by keeping a cool and calculated mind. He is a white-caller accused and if let out on bail, he can tamper with evidence and influence witnesses," submitted Goswami. But continuing argument for Sharma, senior advocate Ratnakar Dholakia contended that the 59-year-old officer had been enlarged on bail in previous six cases either by the Supreme Court or the Gujarat High Court. "There is no record of him having tampered with evidence. Furthermore, alleged offence for which he is booked now is being investigated under an FIR registered in 2010. So, the present one cannot be treated as an FIR. Since the FIR is not maintainable, Sharma should be released on bail," said the senior advocate. However, the prosecutor said Sharma had previously been booked for faking documents and the investigator apprehended that he would escape abroad if let out of jail. Sharma has recently sold off a flat in Ahmedabad and has transferred money to a bank account in Mumbai. It is possible that he can escape to a foreign nation, said Goswami.
