New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth approximately ₹5.92 crore in connection with a money laundering case involving former Gujarat IAS officer Pradeep Sharma and others. The agency made the announcement on Tuesday, following a provisional attachment order issued on April 25 under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The attached assets include plots located in Bhuj and Kutch districts of Gujarat. According to the ED, the case is based on an FIR filed by the Gujarat Police Crime Branch (Bhuj), which named Sharma, Sanjay Shah, and several others in a case of cheating and criminal breach of trust.
The ED alleged that during his tenure as District Collector of Bhuj, Sharma, in collusion with other revenue officials, illegally allotted government land to Shah, violating several government resolutions. Shah subsequently developed the land into residential plots, allegedly generating substantial proceeds of crime.
The investigation revealed that this illegal land allotment caused significant financial loss to the Gujarat government. The ED’s action aims to recover the value of the illicit gains through the attachment of property linked to the alleged wrongdoing.
The case highlights continued efforts by enforcement agencies to crack down on corruption and misuse of public office.