Bhuj, Gujarat — A court in Bhuj, located in the Kutch district of Gujarat, has sentenced former IAS officer Pradeep Sharma and three others to five years of rigorous imprisonment in connection with a 2003-04 land allotment scam in Mundra. The judgment comes in a case that was originally registered in 2011, related to the alleged abuse of power and criminal misconduct in the allotment of government land to a private company at undervalued rates.
The verdict, delivered on Saturday by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate JV Buddha, held Sharma — who was then the District Collector of Kutch — and three other former government officials guilty of conspiring to subvert the land allotment process to benefit Saw Pipes Pvt. Limited. The other convicted individuals include Natu Desai (then town planner), Narendra Prajapati (then Deputy Mamlatdar of Mundra), and Ajitsinh Zala (then Resident Additional Collector).
Each of the four accused has been sentenced to five years of rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 10,000.
According to the court order, the officials misused their authority by approving land allotments at an unusually low rate of Rs 6 per square meter without proper clearance or communication with the state government. This pricing was allegedly approved during the District Land Valuation Committee meetings in 2004. The court noted that four applications made by Saw Pipes Pvt. Ltd. were unlawfully approved, while a fifth remained undecided.
ALSO READ: Call for Cyber Experts: Join FCRF Academy as Trainers and Course Creators
Among the irregular allotments cited in the judgment, a 3,845 sq. m. plot was given away at just Rs 23,070, while another plot measuring 20,538 sq. m. was allotted for Rs 1.23 lakh — significantly below market value. The court remarked that Sharma, in his capacity as District Collector, issued unauthorized allotment orders and failed to notify the state authorities. After the discrepancies came to light, the state government compelled the company to pay the revised, official land price.
The court dismissed the accused’s claims that they were not holding relevant posts during the time of the alleged offences, stating that the evidence clearly established their roles. Special Public Prosecutor HB Jadeja, who appeared for the prosecution, emphasized that Sharma’s sentence should not overlap with a prior conviction under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), handed down in January this year by an Ahmedabad Sessions Court. In that case, Sharma was sentenced to five years, which he is currently serving.
ALSO READ: “DFIR Capability Maturity Assessment Framework” by ALGORITHA
The Bhuj court accepted the argument, ordering that Sharma’s new sentence will commence only after his current jail term ends in 2030, ensuring the punishment is served consecutively rather than concurrently. For the other three accused, the Bhuj court’s five-year sentence took effect immediately upon the verdict being pronounced. The FIR in the case was registered by the CID Crime Branch in Rajkot in 2011 under IPC Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust), 120B (criminal conspiracy), and 217 (public servant disobeying legal direction with intent to save person from punishment or property from forfeiture).
The conviction marks another legal blow for Sharma, already serving time for financial irregularities, and reinforces the judiciary’s stance against misuse of public office for personal or corporate gain.