Gravity of offence justifies separate sentences in PCA & PMLA: Court
The special PMLA court on Saturday sentenced retired IAS officer Pradeep Sharma to five years’ imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹50,000 in a money laundering case linked to allotment of government land at concessional rates between 2003 and 2006 during his tenure as Kutch district collector. “Considering the facts of the case, that the accused is an IAS officer holding the post of District Collector and District Magistrate and has abused his official position by indulging in corrupt practices and also indulging in the crime of money laundering, he deprives himself of any discretion by ordering the sentence to be imposed concurrently,” the special judge said. The judgment adds: “Both offenses under the Prevention of Corruption Act and offenses under PMLA are different laws enacted for a specific purpose and where a person is incited to commit an offense under both the laws and is found guilty in both the cases heard separately, this court does not see any justification for direct compounding of punishment, considering the seriousness and seriousness of the offence.”
Accordingly, the court denied Sharma’s request to order his next sentence in this case to be served concurrently with his previous sentence. The 71-year-old retired bureaucrat was convicted in the land scam case and sentenced to five years in prison for corruption in April. The new prison sentence will begin after the completion of the previous sentence.
The special PMLA court did not find any force in Sharma’s defense that evidence of money trail was not proved as various interconnected witnesses were not examined to show money trail as per the prosecution case.
In March 2012, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) Ahmedabad regional office registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code against Sharma and others. Sharma was arrested in July 2016 and later released on bail in March 2018.
