Former IAS officer Pradeep Sharma sentenced to 5-year jail in PMLA case

A Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) Court in Ahmedabad on Saturday sentenced former IAS officer Pradeep Sharma to five years of rigorous imprisonment in a 13-year-old money laundering case linked to alleged illegal allotment of government land in Gujarat’s Kutch district.

Special PMLA Judge K M Sojitra convicted Sharma under Sections 3 and 4 of the PMLA and ordered the permanent confiscation of properties already attached by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) during the investigation.

The case, registered by the ED in 2012, stems from three FIRs filed by CID Crime (Rajkot Zone) in 2010 accusing Sharma — then collector and district development officer of Kutch and ex-officio chairman of the District Level Land Price Committee (DLPC) and District Level Disposal Committee (DLDC) — of abusing his position to favour Welspun India Ltd and its group companies.

The court held that Sharma “connived with others” to allot large parcels of government land in Varshmedi village, Anjar taluka (Bhuj), at throwaway prices of ₹15 to ₹18 per square metre against the government-fixed rate of ₹78 per square metre, causing a loss of approximately ₹1.2 crore to the state exchequer.

The prosecution further alleged that in return for the favours, Welspun group entities granted Sharma’s wife Shyamal, a 30 per cent partnership stake in an associated company and paid a mobile phone bill of ₹2.24 lakh for a SIM card provided to Sharma.

The ED had provisionally attached several properties belonging to Sharma and his family members during the course of the investigation.