The Gujarat High Court granted bail today to suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma, who was arrested in March in connection with a 10-year-old bribery case
He was held in the bribery case soon after being released on bail in an money laundering case.
Justice A J Desai granted him regular bail in the bribery case, paving the way for his release from Sabarmati Central Jail where he is currently lodged.
Sharma was arrested on March 9 by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for an offence which allegedly took place in 2007-08.
In its FIR lodged earlier this year at Bhavnagar, the ACB had alleged that Sharma demanded and accepted Rs 25 lakh bribe from a contractor when he was holding the additional charge of managing director of the state-owned ship-building company, Alcock Ashdown (Guj) Ltd, situated there.
The FIR was based on statements of one Sahayraj Savrimatthu, who told officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that Sharma, during his tenure between 2007 and 2008, allegedly took the bribe from him to clear pending bills.
Sharma was the collector of Bhavnagar district during that period.
Before his arrest in the corruption case, Sharma was held by the ED in an alleged money laundering case. He spent nearly 20 months in jail before being granted bail in that case.
The ED had registered a case against Sharma for allegedly allotting government land at a low rate to a private company in Kutch district in 2004 for a quid pro quo.
Sharma was then the Kutch collector and chairman of the district land evaluation and pricing committee.
Against the favour, the bureaucrat had allegedly received gains to the tune of Rs 22 lakh in the name of his wife, the ED had alleged.
He allegedly transferred the money using hawala(illegal remittance system) route to his wife with the help of five people who were also named in the ED's charge sheet.
Sharma had claimed that he was being victimised by the BJP government in Gujarat.
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