ED files supplementary charge sheet against Guj IAS officer

The Enforcement Directorate today filed a supplementary charge sheet against suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma in a money laundering case.

The charge sheet was filed before Special Judge A C Joshi under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act "with respect to attachment of Rs 10 lakh", the ED said in a statement.

The agency had filed its first charge sheet against Sharma on September 27, 2016.

The ED had lodged a money laundering case against Sharma on the basis of FIRs registered by the Criminal Investigation Department, Rajkot.

The CID had alleged that Sharma, when he was collector of Kutch district, abused his powers and allotted land to Welspun India at less-than-market rate and caused a loss to the government, the statement said.

Sharma invested Rs 1 lakh in the name of his wife in 2008 in Value Packaging "with ulterior motive of channelising Rs 29 lakh in the guise of profit distribution by the said firm", it said.

He used the "NRO bank account" of his wife to launder Rs 22 lakh and transferred Rs 10 lakh out of it to the account of his brother-in-law, the agency said.

The investigation also revealed that Sharma invested "proceeds of crime" to buy immovable properties and transferred Rs 1 crore through hawala channel into his wife's account in the US, the ED said.

Sharma is currently out on temporary bail in the case.