New Delhi: Former Gujarat-cadre IAS officer Pradeep Nirankaranth Sharma was convicted of money laundering and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment by a special court in Ahmedabad.

Sharma, on whom the court also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000, was accused of charges under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002, for reportedly sanctioning a large parcel of government land to Welspun India Ltd. at concessional rates and thus violating the norms during his tenure as the Kutch district collector and chairman of the district land pricing committee between May 2, 2003 to June 3, 2006.

Special PMLA Judge K.M. Sojitra convicted Sharma under sections 3 and 4 of the PMLA and ordered the Union government to seize his properties that were attached by the Enforcement Directorate during the probe, the Times of India reported.

The court held Sharma guilty of the predicate offence of conspiring with others to allot government land in Varshmedi, a village in Bhuj, to Welspun group of companies at rates ranging from Rs 15 to Rs 18 per square metre instead of the fixed rate of Rs 78 per square metre, causing a loss of Rs 1.2 crore to the exchequer.

The Enforcement Directorate had first registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Corruption Act in March 2012 in the matter. Later, its probe found evidence of money laundering against Sharma, who was said to have channeled “illegal gratification through his wife Shyamal P. Sharma (a United States resident), who was made a 30% partner in Value Packaging Private Limited, a firm associated with the Welspun Group, without any initial capital investment”.

“An amount of Rs 22 lakh, received in her NRO account with Bank of India, and Rs 7.5 lakh as a goodwill payment, are alleged to be illegal gratification for extending undue favours to the Welspun Group. The investment of Rs 1 lakh made in his wife’s name in January 2008 was used to channelise Rs 28,17,407 (including profit share, goodwill amount, and interest) as profit distribution,” the court order noted.

The Enforcement Directorate had said that these funds were reportedly used by Sharma to repay a housing loan and purchase agricultural land in Dehgam. Sharma was also alleged to have used the “hawala” route to transfer nearly Rs 1 crore to his wife’s bank accounts in the United States.

The prosecution said that Sharma received illegal gratification for granting undue favours to the company, with Rs 29.5 lakh credited to his wife’s account.

“Having regard to the facts of the case that, the accused was an IAS officer holding the post of District Collector and District Magistrate and has misused his official position by indulging into corrupt practice and also indulging himself in offence of money laundering disentitles him for any discretion by directing sentence to run concurrently,” the court observed.

“Both the offences, i.e., offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act are different statutes enacted with specific object... when a person is indulged in committing offence under both the statutes and is found guilty in both the cases which are tried separately, considering the seriousness and gravity of offence, the Court does not find any justifiable reason to direct concurrency of sentence and accordingly, the said request of the accused that his subsequent sentence in this case may be ordered to run concurrently with his previous sentence is rejected,” said the order.

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