Pradeep Sharma (IAS)

Pradeep Nirankarnath Sharma is a former IAS officer of Gujarat cadre facing multiple cases of corruption and two separate five years imprisonment for money laundering and irregularities in land allocation. In 2013, he filed a petition in supreme court alleging that Narendra Modi had spied on an architect using state machinery and had called for a CBI probe into it.^[1]

Pradeep Nirankarnath Sharma
Indian Administrative Service
In office 1981 – 2009 (Suspended)
Personal details
Nationality	Indian
Occupation	Multiple roles as Collector (DM) & Municipal Commissioner

He is facing at least five cases of corruption and is accused of illegal land allocation in Kutch and Bhuj.^[2]

Family

He is brother of Kuldeep Sharma, a former IPS officer (ex-DIG, Gujarat) who had accused Amit Shah, then Home Minister of state of accepting a bribe of 2.5 crore to bail out a 1600 crore fraudster involving a bank of which Shah was the director.^[3]

Career

Sharma held various administrative positions during his near thirty-year career including that of District magistrate, Bhuj, Kutch and Rajkot and as municipal commissioner of Jamnagar and Bhavnagar.^[4] A 2011 article by BBC (‘Gujarat's astonishing rise from rubble of 2001 quake’) credits Sharma of being instrumental in redeveloping the Bhuj region after the devastating 2001 earthquake.^[5] He was instrumental in faster rebuilding of streets and several public gardens.^[6]

Stalk-gate/Snoopgate

In 2013, Sharma had alleged that Narendra Modi, the current Prime Minister of India tailed and snooped upon an architect using state machinery in 2009.^[7] He supported his allegations with audio tapes leaked by Cobrapost and Gulail.com.^[8] The tapes which are conversations between a police officer and Amit Shah, the present home minister and close aide of Modi show that every movement of the woman was tracked on the behest of some 'saheb' (master).^[9][10] The allegations were refuted and instead Sharma was accused of having doubtful personality traits.^[11]

In April 2013, suspended IPS officer G.L. Singhl told Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that he was directed multiple times by Amit Shah to tail Pradeep Sharma.^[12] He provided 267 clips of such conversations. These show that over-reaching surveillance was kept by Amit Shah the then home minister of Gujarat on architect, her family and also Sharma.^[13]

The accusations snowballed into a major controversy and embarrassment for the BJP, the current ruling party who had nominated Modi as prime ministerial candidate for 2014 Indian general elections.^[14] The Gujarat State agencies submitted in court & the BJP leaders accepted in public that snooping did happen which they said was done on behest of girl's father and with her knowledge.^[15] S.K. Saikia, the then police commissioner of Ahemdabad said in an interview that if such surveillance was legal, he should have had some paperwork for it.^[16]

Arrests and charges

First arrest

Pradeep sharma was first arrested on corruption charges by Gujarat police when he was Municipal commissioner, Bhavnagar but he later got bail.^[17] He was suspended in 2010 on corruption charges.

2014

In August 2014, he filed a petition in Supreme Court for a CBI probe into cases against him but his application was rejected. He has been since slapped with multiple cases of corruption which his family allege are because of his allegations.^[18]

He was arrested in October 2014 in a graft case by Anti-Corruption Bureau.^[19]

2016—2018

A case of money laundering was filed against him by Enforcement Directorate for and misusing his powers to allocate land to one M/S. Wellspun Company Ltd and to M/s Saw Pipes Ltd causing a loss of ₹1,20,30,824/- to the government. He was convicted of the crime on 08.01.2018 by an order passed by the Special Judge (PMLA), Ahmedabad, in PMLA Case No. 02 of 2016.^[20]

2025

He was sentenced to two five-year imprisonments, one in January (by Ahemdabad sessions court) and other in April (by Bhuj district court).^[21]