SC rejects Gujarat officer's plea to transfer cases

The Supreme Court Wednesday rejected the plea by Pradeep Sharma, a senior Gujarat cadre IAS officer now under suspension, seeking transfer of investigations in five cases filed against him from the state police to the CBI.

Rejecting his contention that he was being targeted because his brother, a senior IPS officer in the state, had refused to carry out illegal orders of political bosses in Gujarat, an apex court bench of Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice N.V. Ramana said: "Allegation of mala fide has not been substantiated."

The court noted the grounds of mala fide and victimisation that Pradeep Sharma was tracing to his IPS brother Kuldip Sharma refusing to carry out illegal orders of then chief minister Narendra Modi and former minister of state for home Amit Shah when he was additional DG CID are the one that he (Kuldip Sharma) had himself given up before the Central Administrative Tribunal.

Noting the assertion by the Gujarat government has not been denied by the counsel appearing for Pradeep Sharma, the court said: "Since Kuldip Sharma has himself given up factual/personal mala fides, in our opinion, the petitioner cannot rely upon them to substantiate his case of transfer."

"In view of the above and having considered the prayer of the petitioner for transfer in its proper perspective in the light of relevant pleadings of the parties, we are of the opinion that no case for transfer of cases to the CBI is made out by the petitioner."

The court said: "Allegations of bias are not substantiated. The said prayer, therefore, will have to be rejected and is rejected."