The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday reserved the order on discharge pleas moved by former IAS officer Pradeep Sharma in a Prevention of Money Laundering Act case and related offences.
In 2016, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) filed a complaint before a special PMLA court in Ahmedabad. According to the case, Sharma allegedly allotted a piece of land to Welspun Group by granting non-agricultural (NA) land permission at a discriminatory rate when he was Kutch collector in 2004.
Welspun allegedly returned the favour by making Sharma’s wife, Shyamal Sharma, a partner in Value Packaging, a firm that has long-term contracts of supplying packaging material to Welspun. The former IAS officer allegedly transferred money using hawala networks to accounts in various countries that included accounts in the name of his wife and children, and invested the money in immovable properties.
The ED proceedings were initiated based on an FIR registered with the Kutch West ACB police station at Bhuj for the offences punishable under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act as well as sections 465, 467, 471 (forgery) and 114 (abetment) under the Indian Penal Code.
Sharma had earlier moved discharge applications before the special PMLA court and moved the Ahmedabad district court seeking discharge from scheduled offences of forgery. Both were rejected in 2021 and 2018 respectively.
Arguing before the court of Justice Samir Dave, Sharma’s counsel RJ Goswami submitted that the FIR in the case was filed after a delay of four years, and that the period of alleged commission of offence of granting NA permission was before PMLA came into force.
However, the ED countered that if suspected proceeds of crime are shown to be untainted money by the accused, it would attract offences under PMLA. ED also submitted that there is prima facie material for presuming Sharma’s involvement in the offences.
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