SC entertains Pradip Sharma’s second plea against Modi

NEW DELHI The Supreme Court on Friday decided to entertain a second petition filed by a senior Gujarat cadre IAS officer seeking a CBI probe into the fresh criminal case registered by the state police against him allegedly at the instance of Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Gujarat police had registered the fifth FIR against Pradip N Sharma, the 1984 batch IAS officer, on May 12, the day the apex court had sought a response from Modi on the allegations that several criminal cases have been foisted against the officer at his behest.
A bench comprising justices Aftab Alam and R M Lodha tagged Sharma’s fresh petition with the first one on which it had issued notices and sought a response from Modi and the Centre for transfering the probe of the cases to an independent agency. The bench had also sought a response from CBI.
Sharma, who is in judicial custody, has alleged he has been a victim of politics as he was not following the “illegal” instructions of the chief minister and the state administration.
When the bench had issued notices on May 12, it had, however, taken strong exception to the submissions by Sharma, which were allegedly aimed at tarnishing the image of Modi by linking him to a woman.
Sharma’s counsel Sunil Fernandes said those paragraphs from the first petition which spoke about his personal life and alleged illicit relationship have been deleted.
The IAS officer is facing five criminal cases, including one for his alleged involvement in a land scam registered against him since 2008 in Rajkot area. PTI