New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the plea by Pradeep Sharma, a senior Gujarat cadre IAS officer now under suspension, seeking transfer of investigations in five cases filed against him from the state police to the CBI.
Rejecting his contention that he was being targeted because his brother, a senior IPS officer in the state, had refused to carry out illegal orders of political bosses in Gujarat, an apex court bench of Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and Justice N.V. Ramana said, "Allegation of malafide has not been substantiated."
Supreme Court had on Tuesday reserved its order for August 13.
At the very beginning of proceedings, a bench headed by Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai barred Sharma’s counsel to raise snoopgate controversy and asked him to confine his arguments only to the point on how the probe done by state police against him is biased.
Advocate Sunil Farnandes, appearing for Sharma, submitted that his client is being targeted by the state government because his elder brother, a senior Gujarat cadre IPS officer, did not toe the line of state government in many cases.
The state government refuted all the allegations levelled by Sharma and said that he was himself under surveillance because of various alleged illegal financial transactions.
The bench, at the end of the hearing, assured Sharma that justice will be done like the apex court has done in various Gujarat cases. “We are not concerned about which government has come or gone. We will not fail in our duty. This court has done a great work in many Gujarat cases. I have also been party to such judgment. We are not concerned about the personality,” it said.
The apex court had on May 12, 2011 taken strong exception to the submissions of Sharma aimed at tarnishing the image of Modi and directed him to delete those paragraphs from the petition.
The IAS officer is facing five criminal cases including his alleged involvement in land scam registered against him since 2008 in Rajkot area. He approached the apex court seeking transfer of cases against him to CBI.
First Published: Wednesday, August 13, 2014, 15:04
