Ahmedabad: A special PMLA court here on Thursday denied bail to suspended IAS officer Rajendrakumar Patel, who faced charges of money laundering and corruption for processing applications for the change of land use when he was posted as collector of Surendranagar district.Patel was arrested on Jan 2 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials after the Anti-Corruption Bureau filed an FIR against him and others on bribery charges.The 2015-batch IAS officer sought bail, claiming innocence and citing a “blotless” service record for the past 10 years. His counsel submitted that no prima facie evidence was made out against him, and his involvement was alleged on the basis of connivance with the co-accused. He alleged that the ED acted maliciously and targeted Patel. The case suggested that the NA scam was prevailing even before Patel was posted as Surendranagar collector, but the ED chose to pick him for unknown reasons. The agency did not find any incriminating material against him, and the tales regarding his riches were cooked-up stories, he submitted.Special public prosecutor Anirudh Kamboj vehemently opposed the bail plea and pointed out that Rs 67.5 lakh in cash was recovered from Patel’s subordinate, and the hisaab sheet recovered contained a record of bribes collected while processing applications for change of land use.It was also submitted that analysis of Patel’s Google activity before his arrest revealed that he searched the phrase “how to reset Samsung S24 Ultra”, which suggested his intention to erase digital data and destroy the evidence.After the hearing, special judge K M Sojitra noted that the hisaab sheet revealed that the collector allegedly received over Rs 3.12 crore towards his 50% share in bribes. The court said, “Having considered the nature of evidence as revealing 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.”
