Land allotment: HC stays probe against IAS officer Pradip Sharma

The IPS officer has been accused of incurring a huge loss to the state government by re-allotting a massive piece of land to a retired serviceman at Anandpar village in Tankara taluka of Rajkot district.

The allotment was done in May 2007 when Sharma was the district collector there.

Sharma’s lawyer,S V Raju,said the court raised the query as to how the case of criminal breach of trust is made against Sharma.

“The public prosecutor sought time to explain the same following which the court stayed further investigation in it till July 6 when the matter is scheduled for further hearing,” added Raju.

Sharma,brother of senior Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Kuldeep Sharma,has been facing a number of criminal cases.

In two other cases of illegal land allotment,the High Court rejected Sharma’s bail applications.

In the two cases,he is accused of allotting land to two private firms against established procedure incurring loss to the state exchequer.

Rejecting Sharma’s bail applications,Justice Pardiwala ordered to conclude the trial in these cases within six months.

But the High Court stayed the order till July 30 following the request of Raju since one of Sharma’s petitions seeking transfer of cases registered against him outside Gujarat is pending before the Supreme Court.