BHUJ: A local court said here today that it would pronounce on October 10 an order on the bail plea of suspended Gujarat cadre IAS officer Pradeep Sharma, who is behind the bars in a case of allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 29 lakh.
After hearing the submissions by both sides, Additional District Judge J B Dhandhal said he would pronounce the order on Sharma's bail plea on October 10.
Sharma's advocate Ratnakar Dholakia submitted before the court that the alleged graft case had already been probed by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and even the Gujarat High Court had granted a stay against the probe.
Opposing Sharma's bail plea, Public Prosecutor K Goswami said Sharma had misused his power when he was posted as Kutch collector and indulged in corrupt practices for which he needs to to be interrogated further.
Sharma was arrested by the ACB on September 30 in a corruption case, for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 29 lakh from a private company when he was Kutch Collector in 2004.
As per the complaint, he had alloted land to the company at 25 per cent of prevailing market rates enabling illegal benefits to the company and a loss of around Rs 1.2 crore to the Gujarat state exchequer.
In return, the company allegedly made Sharma's wife, a 30 per cent partner in one of its subsidiaries called Value Packaging without any investment made by her and extended a benefit of Rs 29.5 lakh to her, as per the complaint.
Sharma, who faces five corruption cases, had filed a petition in the Supreme Court alleging he was being victimised by the state government and had sought a CBI inquiry in cases against him. However, last month the Supreme Court had rejected his application.
The suspended IAS officer's name also figured in the 'Snoopgate' tapes released by two Internet news websites, which alleged a woman was snooped upon in Gujarat at the behest of the then minister of state for home Amit Shah.