Amid trial over charges of forgery and money laundering against former IAS officer Pradeep Sharma, the cross-examination of the first prosecution witness - retired police official VM Gohil - was completed before an Ahmedabad district court on Monday. Gohil was the investigating officer in the case. During his cross-examination on Monday, he submitted he had not taken the sanction of his higher officials while registering an offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act against Sharma. He also stated he did not seize any SIM cards or mobile phones during the preliminary investigation. Sharma is 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. He is facing money laundering proceedings by the Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, for the scheduled offence of forgery, as well as the trial of sessions cases for offences under the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act with the state of Gujarat as the prosecutor. Sharma allegedly received kickbacks from Welspun, which is accused of returning Sharma’s favour of land allotment by making Sharma's wife, Shyamal Sharma, a partner in Value Packaging, a firm which has long-term contracts for supplying packaging material to Welspun. The former IAS officer had allegedly transferred money using hawala networks to various countries in other accounts, including the accounts in the name of his wife and children, and invested the money in immovable properties. Six prosecution witnesses have been examined in the Enforcement Directorate case while Gohil is the first witness in the sessions court case.
