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Suspended Indian Administrative Service officer Pradeep Sharma, who took on Narendra Modi over the snoopgate scandal when he was the Gujarat chief minister, was arrested on Tuesday in a corruption case, a day after the Enforcement Directorate attached his properties for alleged money laundering.
"Sharma has been arrested by us under the Prevention of Corruption Act. As per the complaint registered by us yesterday (on Monday), Sharma allegedly received Rs 29 lakh from private firm Welspun. The amount was first deposited in the account of Sharma's wife, and then transferred to his account," Anti Corruption Bureau Director (in-charge) Ashish Bhatia said.
"This is a case of allegedly taking bribe for extending benefits to a company when he was Collector of Kutch," Bhatia said.
Sharma has been booked under Prevention of Corruption Act sections 11 (public servant obtaining valuable gift from person concerned in proceedings or business transacted by such public servant), 13(1)(D) (to obtain valuable things by corrupt or illegal means) and 13(2) (criminal misconduct by public servant).
The case pertains to 2004, when Sharma was the collector of Kutch.
Sharma, at loggerheads with the erstwhile Modi government, had sought a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into alleged snooping on a woman architect after two news portals released CDs of purported telephonic conversations between the then chief minister's close aide Amit Shah, who was then the minister of state for home, and two top state police officials.
The conversations, purportedly between August and September 2009, did not specifically mention Modi by name but referred to a 'saheb', which the portals claimed was the Gujarat CM at whose instance snooping was done, a charge denied by Shah, who in now the BJP president.
As per the complaint, Sharma, an IAS officer of 1984 batch, had allegedly allotted land to Welspun at 25 per cent of the prevailing market rates which resulted in illegal benefits to the company and loss of around Rs 1.2 crore to the state exchequer.
In return for the favour, the company allegedly made Sharma's wife a 30 per cent partner in one of its subsidiaries -- Value Packaging -- without her having made any investment and extended benefits of Rs 29.5 lakhs to her, according to the complaint.
"The money was first deposited in the account of Sharma's wife and then transferred to his account," it further said.
Enforcement Directorate had on Monday seized properties of Sharma under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, including a piece of land in the Dehgam village of Gandhinagar district and a bungalow in the state capital, also in connection with the deal with Welspun.
"The land in Dehgam is worth Rs 65 to 70 lakh while the bungalow itself is worth Rs 1 crore. We attached the land and 35 per cent of the bungalow to arrive at the Rs 1-crore figure to recover the loss," said a senior ED official. Sharma is facing six criminal corruption cases in Gujarat.
Image: Suspended Indian Administrative Service officer Pradeep Sharma