What did Vipul Chaudhary do? Ex-Gujarat minister sentenced to 7 years for cheating Amul
The court held the 15 guilty of the offences of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, abetment and forgery. However, the court acquitted four other accused of all charges. On Thursday, A Mehsana magistrate court sentenced Vipul Chaudhary, s former chairman and a former home minister of Dudhsagar Dairy, as well as 14 others to seven years of imprisonment after holding them guilty of dishonesty and cheating. Also, the court held the 15 guilty for the offences of criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, abetment and forgery. However, the court acquitted four other accused of all charges. Including former board members of Dudhsagar dairy, the 14 others have also been found guilty. In the case, 22 accused were charge-sheeted, of whom three were diminished from the trial following their demise during the pendency. They are Velajibhai Kesharbhai Chaudhari, Baldevbhai Jesangbhai Chaudhari, and Joitabhai Savajibhai Chaudhari.
Who Is Vipul Chaudhary?
Four others – Dr Bipinchandra Mohanlal Patel, Prabhatbhai Khodabhai Desai, Akshaykumar Kunhbihari Shah and Pravinkumar Baladevchandra Bhambi, were acquitted of all charges. The 15 convicted by Additional Magistrate Y R Agrawal are now lodged at a jail in Mehsana, said to the Defence lawyer Rajendrabhai Narottamdas Barot. He added, “We will appeal against this verdict and also file for bail tomorrow at the Mehsana sessions court. The magistrate court has primarily held in its 251-page verdict that the 15 accused are guilty of causing the dairy a loss of Rs 22.5 crore”.
Barrot said, “Apart from the seven-year sentence, the 15 have also been imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 each. In 2014, a charge sheet was filed and an FIR was also registered by Mehsana City B division police station the same year. It was presumed that Chaudhary, who was then also the chairman of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), better called Amul, and Dudhsagar dairy in Mehsana had decided to supply 22.5 metric tons of cattle fed worth Rs 22 crore for free to drought-hit areas in Maharashtra. The Mehsana District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union, which runs Dudhsagar Dairy, is known as one of the 18 unions that are part of the umbrella body GCMMF.
The judgement will impact Chaudhary in other pending criminal cases, including an FIR registered at CID Gandhinagar on 11 December 2020, for allegedly causing a loss of approximately Rs 22.5 crore to Dudhsagar Dairy. Through a bonus issuance scam, it has been presumed that Chaudhary fraudulently received Rs 14 crore from 1,932 dairy employees. The offence took place between July 29, 2019 and October 31, 2019. Apart from Vipul Chaudhary, there are many other convicts also.
