Gujarat: HC seeks ED reply on suspended IAS officer’s bail plea in money laundering case

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court has sought a reply from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the bail application filed by the suspended IAS officer Rajendrakumar Patel. The bureaucrat is facing money-laundering and corruption charges for processing land-use change applications while he was posted as the collector of Surendranagar district.The 2015-batch IAS officer moved the HC after a special PMLA court rejected his regular bail application on March 12. He was arrested on Jan 2 by the ED after the state's anti-corruption bureau filed an FIR against him and others for bribery. The high court has posted a hearing on April 10.In his submission to the trial court, Patel maintained innocence and cited a spotless service record for the past decade. To rebut his claim, the probe agency pointed out that Rs 67.50 lakh in cash was recovered from Patel's subordinate, and that a seized accounting sheet contained a record of bribes collected while processing applications for change of land use. After the hearing, the trial court took note of the accounting sheet, which revealed that the collector allegedly received over Rs 3.12 crore towards his 50% share of the bribe. The trial court said, "Having considered the nature of evidence as revealed from the complaint and case papers, affidavit of investigating officer, hisaab sheets, shared WhatsApp hisaab sheets among the accused persons, statements of various persons under Section 50 of PMLA, this court cannot form prima facie opinion that the applicant is not guilty of having committed/indulged in offence of money laundering."