The Gujarat police Monday arrested former Bhuj residential deputy collector (RDC) Francis Suvera from Ahmedabad, days after the arrest of former IAS officer Pradeep Sharma on March 5 in a fresh FIR for allegedly regularising a piece of encroached land in Kutch at lower rates. Investigating officer Vasantkumar Nayi confirmed that Suvera (68) was arrested from his Ahmedabad residence at 7:20 am and presented before the Bhuj chief judicial magistrate at 6 pm. The officer, facing charges of criminal breach of trust by a public servant and criminal conspiracy, has been remanded to police custody until March 15. “The file (related to regularising of the encroached land) was cleared under his (Suvera’s) supervision, travelling from the deputy collector to the collector's office to the district planning officer, and from there to again the collector’s office. He (Suvera) was also part of the member secretary of the price-fixing committee. We sought remand mainly on the ground that he was not revealing on whose instruction the file was cleared. We also submitted that the land does not fall under "technical land" definition and yet, it was processed or converted as a "technical land", and thus, we need to probe that on whose instructions this was done," Nayi explained Suvera’s alleged role. The offence was committed between November 2004 and May 2005, according to the FIR lodged on March 4. Apart from naming the then Kutch collector Sharma, the FIR had mentioned two unnamed accused. Only their designations—then RDC and Bhuj town planner—were mentioned at the time of the offence. Nayi added that the third accused—Natubhai Desai—was yet to be traced. His phone has been switched off and he has not been at his Bilimora, Navsari residence. Meanwhile, Sharma, who is currently in judicial custody at Palara jail in Bhuj, has filed for bail before a Kutch sessions court after a magistrate court rejected his bail plea last week. The plea before the sessions court is scheduled to be heard Tuesday.
