Ahmedabad: A special court on Saturday sentenced retired IAS officer Pradeep Sharma to five years in jail in a money laundering case related to the sanctioning of government land to a private company at concessional rates between 2003 and 2006 when he was district collector of Kutch.
The court also fined him ₹50,000.
PMLA Special Judge KM Sojitra convicted him under Sections 3 and 4 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The court further ordered that Sharma’s property seized by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) during the investigation shall remain attached by the central government.
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The Ahmedabad regional office of the ED registered a criminal case against Sharma and others in March 2012 under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Sharma was first arrested in July 2016 and released on bail in March 2018.
The investigation revealed that Sharma, as the then Chairman of the District Land Pricing Committee, had allotted a large portion of government land to Welspun India Limited at concessional rates in violation of norms.
The ED alleged that Sharma used his wife’s bank account to layer criminal proceeds from Welspun India and its group companies. Proceeds from criminal activity were used, among other things, to pay off housing loans and purchase agricultural land.
Sharma allegedly received illegal gratification for providing undue favors to the company, the prosecution said, adding ₹29.5 million was credited to the account of his wife, a resident of the USA.
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He was also accused of having received a mobile SIM card from the company, which paid for it ₹2.24 lakh in 2004 and 2009 as proceeds of crime.
His wife became a 30 per cent partner in an associated firm, Value Packaging Pvt Ltd, between 2004 and 2007 to distribute the bribe money, the ED said in the charge sheet.
The federal agency emphasized that the partnership was in fact a special purpose vehicle through which the proceeds of crime were funneled into its NRO account.
The CID (Crime) in Rajkot registered an FIR against Sharma in March 2010 under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, followed by the registration of another case in September 2010 under the Indian Penal Code.
The CID accused Sharma of causing loss to the exchequer ₹1.20 million crowns.
In September 2014, the Anti-Corruption Bureau registered a case against Sharma under relevant sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, alleging that he misused his official position by granting non-agricultural land to the Welspun Group of companies within just 40 days, knowing full well that his wife was a partner in an associated company, for which she received ₹29.5 million.
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Based on the 2010 FIR, the Ahmedabad Regional Office of the Enforcement Directorate registered a criminal case against Sharma and others in March 2012.
During the investigation, the ED has provisionally attached Sharma’s assets, including land in Gandhinagar district and a house.
Separately, in April 2025, a Bhuj court sentenced Sharma to five years rigorous imprisonment and a fine ₹10,000 in a 2011 case related to irregularities in the allotment of government land to a private company in 2004.
This case involving Saw Pipes Pvt. Ltd., also related to losses caused to the state exchequer during his tenure as district collector of Kutch in 2004. Sharma and three others were convicted in the case.
Sharma is currently lodged in jail.
