Ahmedabad, Febraury 19:Gujarat Congress president Siddarth Patel today demanded that investigation of a case against arrested senior IAS officer Pradeep Sharma should be transferred to CBI as he has levelled serious allegations against Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.
“Sharma, a former district collector of Kutch, has in a letter to state chief secretary A K Jyoti demanded that the chief minister should also be included as a co-accused in the case in which he is arrested. That case should be immediately transferred to the CBI,” Patel said.
According to the police case, Sharma, while he was collector of Kutch district between 2003 and 2006, had allegedly sold government land in Varshamedi of Anjar taluka to Welspun Company at half the price.
The FIR against him said that as collector Sharma had passed multiple orders beyond his authority, selling 80,000 sq ft land to Welspun for Rs 12 lakh.
Patel said, “In his letter, Sharma has pointed out that the chairman of Welspun company B K Goenka during the inauguration ceremony of the company’s premises in Kutch in which Modi was also present had said that the chief minister had promised to give all the facilities for starting their unit in Kutch”.
“And in return, Sharma has mentioned in the letter, the company gave two cheques of Rs 50 lakh and Rs 35 lakh for celebrations of a government-function called Sarad Utsav in Kutch. Though there are no proofs of such transactions but in this case cheques were issued in a name of a trust,” Patel alleged.
Sharma is behind bars in the case at present.
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