A court in Gujarat’s Kutch district on Saturday sentenced former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Pradeep Sharma to five years of rigorous imprisonment in connection with a 2011 case involving irregularities in the allotment of government land to a private company.
The alleged misuse of authority during his tenure as Kutch district collector resulted in a loss to the public exchequer.
Alongside Sharma, the court also sentenced urban planner Natubhai Desai, then mamlatdar Narendra Prajapati, and then resident deputy collector Ajitsinh Zala to five years in prison. A fine of Rs 10,000 was imposed on each of the four convicts.
Violation of govt rules in land allotment
The case pertains to the allotment of land to Saw Pipes Pvt Ltd in 2004, when Sharma was serving as the collector of Kutch. According to the prosecution, Sharma issued multiple orders to facilitate the land transfer, bypassing rules and exceeding his official powers.
The allotment exceeded the legal limit of two hectares, as specified in a Gujarat Revenue Department resolution dated June 6, 2003, which authorised district collectors to allot up to two hectares of government land for industrial use.
The prosecution argued that Sharma, in collusion with the other accused, violated these rules to benefit the company financially, while causing corresponding losses to the state.
Case history & court proceedings
A First Information Report (FIR) in the case was registered in 2011 at the CID Crime Rajkot Zone police station.
Sharma was arrested on March 4, 2011, and booked under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 120B (criminal conspiracy), and 217 (public servant disobeying the law) of the Indian Penal Code.
During the trial, Special Public Prosecutor H.B. Jadeja submitted 52 pieces of documentary evidence and presented the testimonies of 18 prosecution witnesses.
The court observed that the land allotment was carried out by deliberately ignoring government directives, and held all four accused guilty of conspiring to misuse their official positions.
The verdict was delivered by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate J.V. Buddha in Bhuj.
Sharma is already serving a five-year sentence awarded by a sessions court in Ahmedabad in January 2024, in a separate corruption case dating back to 2004. The Bhuj court ruled that the new sentence will commence after the completion of the previous one.
(With PTI inputs)
The alleged misuse of authority during his tenure as Kutch district collector resulted in a loss to the public exchequer.
Alongside Sharma, the court also sentenced urban planner Natubhai Desai, then mamlatdar Narendra Prajapati, and then resident deputy collector Ajitsinh Zala to five years in prison. A fine of Rs 10,000 was imposed on each of the four convicts.
Violation of govt rules in land allotment
The case pertains to the allotment of land to Saw Pipes Pvt Ltd in 2004, when Sharma was serving as the collector of Kutch. According to the prosecution, Sharma issued multiple orders to facilitate the land transfer, bypassing rules and exceeding his official powers.
The allotment exceeded the legal limit of two hectares, as specified in a Gujarat Revenue Department resolution dated June 6, 2003, which authorised district collectors to allot up to two hectares of government land for industrial use.
The prosecution argued that Sharma, in collusion with the other accused, violated these rules to benefit the company financially, while causing corresponding losses to the state.
Case history & court proceedings
A First Information Report (FIR) in the case was registered in 2011 at the CID Crime Rajkot Zone police station.
Sharma was arrested on March 4, 2011, and booked under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant), 120B (criminal conspiracy), and 217 (public servant disobeying the law) of the Indian Penal Code.
During the trial, Special Public Prosecutor H.B. Jadeja submitted 52 pieces of documentary evidence and presented the testimonies of 18 prosecution witnesses.
The court observed that the land allotment was carried out by deliberately ignoring government directives, and held all four accused guilty of conspiring to misuse their official positions.
The verdict was delivered by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate J.V. Buddha in Bhuj.
Sharma is already serving a five-year sentence awarded by a sessions court in Ahmedabad in January 2024, in a separate corruption case dating back to 2004. The Bhuj court ruled that the new sentence will commence after the completion of the previous one.
(With PTI inputs)
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