Former IAS officer Pradeep Sharma. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

A district court in Bhuj town of Gujarat on Saturday (April 19, 2025) sentenced former IAS officer Pradeep Sharma to five years of rigorous imprisonment in a 2011 case on irregularities in the allotment of government land to a private company when he was then Kutch district collector.

Also read: Former Gujarat IAS officer Pradeep Sharma gets five years in jail in 2004 corruption case

The court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate J.V. Buddha in Bhuj town of Kutch district sentenced Mr. Sharma, urban planner Natubhai Desai, then mamlatdar Narendra Prajapati and then resident deputy collector Ajitsinh Zala to five years imprisonment for causing loss to the public exchequer in the land deal and also imposed a fine of ₹10,000 each on them.

The case pertains to irregularities committed in the allotment of government land to Saw Pipes Pvt. Ltd. in 2004 when Mr. Sharma was the Kutch collector.

The court said Mr. Sharma’s sentence would commence after he undergoes the five-year sentence given by a sessions court in Ahmedabad on January 20 this year, in a 2004 corruption case.

A First Information Report (FIR) was registered against Mr. Sharma and three others at CID Crime Rajkot zone police station in 2011 under Section 409 (criminal breach of trust committed by public servants), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 217 (a public servant knowingly disobeying a direction of the law) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Mr. Sharma was arrested on March 4, 2011.

Special public prosecutor H.B. Jadeja said the court took into account 52 documentary evidences and statements of 18 prosecution witnesses.

Flouted rules

According to the prosecution, the former IAS officer committed irregularities in allotting land through different orders to Saw Pipes Private Limited to set up an industrial unit by flouting rules and regulations of the State government in this regard, thereby causing financial loss to the public exchequer.

The allotment of land was above the cap of two hectares, and it flouted the Gujarat government’s Revenue Department resolution dated June 6, 2003, authorising the collector to allot up to two hectares of land for industrial purposes.

The prosecution submitted that the accused committed the criminal act by going beyond his authority and without taking into account the orders of the State government, with the sole intention of financially benefitting the company and causing financial loss to the government.

The other three accused committed the crime of conspiring with the main accused during the District Land Valuation Committee’s meeting and acted in collusion, it said.