Ex-IAS officer Pradeep Sharma gets five-year imprisonment in money laundering case

Ahmedabad, Dec 6 (PTI) A special court on Saturday sentenced retired IAS officer Pradeep Sharma to five years’ imprisonment in a money laundering case related to the sanctioning of government land to a private company at concessional rates between 2003 and 2006, when he was the Kutch district collector.

The court also fined him Rs 50,000.

Special PMLA judge K M Sojitra convicted him under Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The court further ordered that Sharma’s properties seized by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) during the investigation would remain confiscated by the Central government.

The Ahmedabad zonal office of the ED had registered a criminal case against Sharma and others in March 2012 under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Sharma was first arrested in July 2016 and released on bail in March 2018.

The investigation revealed that Sharma, as the then chairman of the district land pricing committee, sanctioned a large parcel of government land to Welspun India Limited at concessional rates in violation of norms.

The ED claimed that Sharma used his wife’s bank account for layering proceeds of crime received from Welspun India and its group companies. The proceeds of the crime were used to repay the housing loan and purchase agricultural land, among others.

Sharma allegedly received illegal gratification for extending undue favours to the company, the prosecution said, adding Rs 29.5 lakh was credited in the account of his wife, a US resident.

He was also accused of receiving a mobile SIM card from the company, which paid Rs 2.24 lakh during 2004 and 2009 as proceeds of crime.

His wife was made a 30 per cent partner in an associated firm, Value Packaging Pvt Ltd, between 2004 and 2007 to channelise the bribe money, the ED had said in the chargesheet.

The federal agency emphasised that the partnership was actually a special purpose vehicle through which the proceeds of crime were routed to her NRO account.

The CID (Crime) at Rajkot had registered an FIR against Sharma in March 2010 under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, followed by the registration of another case in September 2010 under the Indian Penal Code.

The CID had accused Sharma of causing loss to the government exchequer to the tune of Rs 1.20 crore.

In September 2014, the Anti-Corruption Bureau registered a case against Sharma under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, alleging that he misused his official position by granting non-agricultural status to an agricultural land for Welspun Group of Companies within only 40 days, knowing well that his wife was a partner in the associated company, for which she received Rs 29.5 lakh.

Based on the 2010 FIR, the Ahmedabad zonal office of the Enforcement Directorate registered a criminal case against Sharma and others in March 2012.

During the investigation, the ED provisionally attached Sharma's properties, including land in the Gandhinagar district and a house.

Separately, in April 2025, a court in Bhuj sentenced Sharma to five years' rigorous imprisonment and fined him Rs 10,000 in a 2011 case related to irregularities in the allotment of government land to a private company in 2004.

That case, involving Saw Pipes Pvt. Ltd., also pertained to losses caused to the public exchequer during his tenure as Kutch district collector in 2004. Sharma and three others were convicted in that matter.

Sharma is currently lodged in a jail. PTI KA PD NSK