ACB court rejects suspended Guj IAS officer's bail plea

A Bhavnagar court today rejected the bail application of suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma who was arrested on March 9 for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs 25 lakh.

He had moved the court, claiming that the Anti-Corruption Bureau's FIR was "ill intentioned" as it was filed in 2018 over a case which was said to have taken place in 2008-09.

He sought bail saying that he had already spent the last 20 months in jail.

The court of special ACB judge S R Bateriwala also rejected Sharma's bail application.

The officer has also moved the Gujarat High Court for quashing the FIR. The high court had granted him bail in a money laundering case being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

However, he was arrested in connection with a corruption case lodged against him at Bhavnagar soon after he walked out of Sabarmati Jail on March 9.

As per the FIR lodged by the ACB, Sharma had demanded and accepted Rs 25 lakh bribe from a contractor when he was holding additional charge of managing director of state-owned ship-building company, Alcock Ashdown (Guj) Ltd, situated in Bhavnagar.

The FIR was based on statements of one Sahayraj Savrimatthu who told ED officials that Sharma, during his tenure between 2007-2008 took the bribe from him to clear pending bills.

Sharma was the collector of Bhavnagar district during that period.

He had crossed swords with the Gujarat government when Narendra Modi was the chief minister. He had claimed that he was being victimised by the BJP government for his knowledge of illegal surveillance on a woman by the state government agencies.