Ahmedabad, June 30 -- The Gujarat High Court rejected the regular bail plea of suspended IAS officer Rajendrakumar Patel, holding that there was prima facie material to show his involvement in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land conversion bribery racket in the Surendranagar Collector's office.

Justice Hasmukh D Suthar, in an order dated June 29, said that Patel had failed to satisfy the conditions for bail under Section 45 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), observing that there were "no reasonable grounds to believe he was not guilty" of the offence.

The court said that economic offences such as money laundering adversely affect the country's economic and social fabric and therefore require a different appr...