Suspended Gujarat IAS officer Pradeep Sharma to use controversial tapes in his defence in SC

NEW DELHI: Suspended Gujarat IAS officer, Pradeep Sharma, will use controversial tapes — which has references to alleged state surveillance of a woman’s movements in violation of rules — in his defence in the Supreme Court to prove that he was being harassed by the state government.

The alleged illegal surveillance have sparked a political storm, with the Congress calling for a probe into the affair and the BJP defending the conduct of its PM candidate as state CM.

The tapes contain tapped conversations between ex-Gujarat home minister and close Modi aide Amit Shah, an accused in a fake encounter killing of Sohrabuddin Shiekh, and Gujarat IPS officer GL Singhal regarding the surveillance ordered by the state government on the movements of a woman, who is said to be known to the CM. In the tapped conversations shah is heard referring to a “sahib” at whose instance the snooping is being carried out.

Sharma’s lawyer Prashant Bhushan signaled his intention to place these tapes before the SC to prove victimisation of the officer at the hands of the state machinery. “Something very, very serious has happened in the mean time,” Bhushan said cryptically, prompting a bench, headed by CJI P Sathasivam, to permit him to file the recordings and list the case for further hearing on Dec 3, 2013.

Bhushan, an active member of the AAP, said tapes contained a conversation in which Shah was heard telling Singhal to slap so many cases against Sharma that he spends more time than Vanzara in jail.

DG Vanzara, once a top police officer in Gujarat, in now in jail in connection with the fake killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh. Bhushan said that the tapes would be placed before the SC in a week and the officer would demand a CBI or SIT probe.

Pradeep, younger brother of Gujarat IPS officer Kuldeep Sharma, claims the state government filed false cases against him to harass him as his brother refused to oblige the establishment in covering up cases such as the Sohrabuddin fake killing. He’s facing charges of graft while being collector of quake-devastated Bhuj. Seven cases have been filed in this connection against him by the state government.