Pradeep Sharma's wife owned 30% of Welspun arm: ACB - Times of India

AHMEDABAD: A day after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) attached his properties worth Rs 1 crore, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) early on Tuesday morning arrested suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma in an alleged corruption case. He was picked up at 3am on Tuesday when he returned to his mother's residence in Ahmedabad after attending a garba event. Sharma was then taken to a Bhuj court for remand.

The suspended IAS officer and his brother Kuldeep Sharma, a retired IPS officer, were at loggerheads with the state government led by Narendra Modi till May this year.

ACB officials said a complaint against Sharma was registered at Kutch (West) ACB police station by assistant director of ACB, DS Vyas, on Tuesday. Sharma, his wife Shyamal and Welspun group owner late Gopikishan Goenka have been made accused under sections 11, 13(1)(D) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. T K Patel, assistant director, ACB, is conducting investigation in the matter. According to the complaint, during his tenure as Kutch collector, Sharma had allotted land to Welspun group at 25% of the prevailing market rates, which led to a loss of Rs 1.2 crore to the state exchequer. The complaint says Sharma got monetary benefits in return.

His wife Shyamal was made 30% partner of Value Packaging, a subsidiary of Welspun group, without investing any money in it. Over a period, Shyamal got Rs 29 lakh from the firm. When Sharma was made accused in various corruption charges, the subsidiary company was shut down in 2009-10.

Sharma, who is facing five corruption cases, had earlier filed a petition in the Supreme Court alleging that he was being victimized by the Modi government in the state and had sought a CBI inquiry in the cases against him. However, the Supreme Court rejected his application last month.

ACB director Ashish Bhatia said that after the agency sought permission from the state government to probe allegations against Sharma last year, the inquiry lasted a year during which they found evidence in the form of the bank transactions from Welspun to an NRI account operated by Sharma's wife and subsequent transfer of money in Sharma's account. "Further inquiry is on to ascertain the nature of the benefits the firm got due to Sharma's intervention. For this, government files of that period will be checked. We are also investigating what happened to the money," said Bhatia.

http://ift.tt/1vvQm8j Sharma,Enforcement Directorate,anti-corruption bureau

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