Graft case: IAS Pradeep Sharma withdraws bail plea from High Court

AHMEDABAD: Suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma, who is behind bars in a graft case withdrew his bail application from the Gujarat High Court here today.

Justice A J Desai of the Gujarat High Court ordered that "the bail application stands disposed off as withdrawn," and also asked the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to complete its probe in a case of allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 29.5 lakh.

In his bail plea, Sharma had submitted that the alleged graft case had already been probed by the ACB four years ago and hence it need not be probed again.

The Gujarat state government said that there are serious charges against Sharma, who had allotted a certain piece of land to a company, to earn more than Rs 29 lakh, through allegedly corrupt practices, when he was the collector of Kutch district.

On October 10, a local court in Bhuj had denied bail to Sharma, which he had challenged before the Gujarat High Court.

Sharma was arrested by the ACB on September 30 for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 29.5 lakh from a private company as the district collector of Kutch in 2004.

According to the complaint, he had alloted a piece of land to a company at 25 per cent of prevailing market rates, enabling illegal benefits to the company and a loss of around Rs 1.2 crore to the Gujarat state exchequer.

In return, the company allegedly made Sharma's wife, a 30 per cent partner in one of its subsidiaries called Value Packaging, though no investment was made by her and also extended a benefit of Rs 29.5 lakh to her, the complaint said.

Sharma, who faces five corruption cases, had filed a petition in the Supreme Court alleging that he is being victimised by the Gujarat state government and had sought a CBI inquiry into cases against him.

However, last month, the Supreme Court rejected his application.

The suspended IAS officer's name had also figured in 'Snoopgate' tapes, released by two news portals, which alleged that a woman was snooped upon in Gujarat at the behest of the then Gujarat minister of state for home, Amit Shah.