Gujarat is known for its several contributions to the nation. However, of late, the state has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. From an illegal toll booth, a fake irrigation office, a fake court to fake officers. The list is endless.
Despite the severity of these offences, all but one of the accused have been granted bail.
In Wankaner, authorities dismantled a fraudulent toll booth on National Highway 27 (formerly NH 8A), connecting the town to Morbi and the Kutch district ports. Located just 500 metres from an official toll plaza, this small and black-and-yellow painted booth had been charging unsuspecting drivers and presented a seemingly legitimate toll rate chart.
Local residents, including the former village head (sarpanch), were arrested when the scam was exposed on December 4, 2023, though they are now out on bail.
Anil Manavadaria, an independent engineer with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) overseeing this section of NH-27, explained the response to the incident. “After the fake toll booth, set up within a tiles factory and in the village, was discovered in December 2023, police closed the factory route,” he said.
He further claimed, “Now, Bamanbore Tollway Pvt Ltd (BTPL), the authorised toll collector, has established legal toll booths at Vaghasia’s entrance and exit to prevent further toll leakage, as per their agreement with NHAI.”
The police has arrested Dharmendrasinh Bahadursinh Zala, the Sarpanch of Vaghasiya village and four others for operating fake toll booths. They established one fake toll booth in Vaghasiya for vehicles from Wankaner to Morbi and another in a factory on the opposite side of the highway just months before their arrest.
“Since the closure of the fake toll booths, our daily collection has increased by 25%, from Rs 17 lakh to Rs 22 lakh,” an official noted.
Rahul Tripathi, Morbi district Superintendent of Police, confirmed that the investigation is complete and the matter is now before the court.
Inspector PD Solanki, the former investigation officer, has been transferred to Morbi, while current Wankaner city police inspector Hansa V Ghela declined to comment on the case.
Fake Irrigation Office Uncovered
Authorities were also confounded by a fake irrigation office operating from a flat in Modasar, Bodeli taluka, Chhota Udepur district. This office was reportedly part of a scheme led by a retired IAS officer B D Ninama and others, to siphon off funds from the Tribal Sub-Plan, costing the government an estimated Rs 39.5 crore.
The scam came to light when the current Project Administrator noticed unauthorised irrigation project applications seeking Rs 3.74 crore in funding for 2023-24. The accused were also released on bail in this case.
Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi told Vibes of India that such fake offices cannot function without the connivance of government officers and politicians. The government has painted a rosy picture over the last two decades and there has been a decay in the system from top to bottom, he alleged.
Doshi wondered how grants were given through the Bodeli office without the BJP leaders, including the lawmakers, in know of things.
In October, the ruling BJP’s corporator Nirav Jagdish Kavi faced legal proceedings after the Ahmedabad Sessions Court ordered a formal complaint against him for allegedly contesting a municipal seat under a false Hindu identity with fabricated documentation.
Kavi, who contested for the Navrangpura ward in the 2021 Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation elections, declared his birth date as November 11, 1977, though investigations reportedly reveal his actual birth date as June 1, 1975, identifying him as Raj Kavi Mir, a Muslim.
Congress flagged these discrepancies, alleging that Kavi’s documents, including his Aadhar, election ID and PAN card, contain falsified details. Congress candidate Jaykumar Patel filed a criminal case after local police did not act on his initial complaints, leading to charges under multiple IPC (now Bhartiya Nyay Sanhita) sections, including those related to false evidence and cheating.
Following an appeal, the Ahmedabad Sessions Court reversed an initial dismissal, mandating the initiation of formal proceedings against Kavi.
Aam Aadmi Party’s state president Isudan Gadhvi told Vibes of India that in the last three decades, the BJP has only divided Hindus and Muslims and given jobs to its “known” people.
Gadhvi even went on to say that in five years, such fake offices and other fake things will be replicated in other parts of the country where the BJP is in power.
The Infamous Kiran Patel
A Gujarati man had even successfully posed as a senior official in the Prime Minister’s office in early 2023 during multiple visits to Kashmir.
Sources said that Kiran Jagdishbhai Patel, a resident of Ahmedabad in Gujarat, flaunted his fake credentials at Doodhpathri tourist resort where he identified himself as Additional Director (Strategy and Campaigns) and a senior PMO official and claimed to have “come for a high-level meeting.”
On November 9, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said it has filed a prosecution complaint against alleged Gujarat “conman” Kiran Patel before a special court in Srinagar under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The central agency said that the court took cognisance of the prosecution complaint and issued a notice to the accused to appear on November 27.
In a bizarre case in Surat’s Varachha area, a gang of fake police officers and a group of gamblers were both exposed.
Five men posing as police officers raided a local gambling den, seizing Rs 1.73 lakh from the gamblers and threatening them with legal action unless they paid.
Suspicious of their behaviour, the gamblers later reported the incident to the real Varachha police. The local police later identified the accused. A search operation was launched, leading to the arrest of three of five fake officers, while the remaining two are still at large and have been declared wanted.
Only One ‘Conman’ in Jail
The only case where the accused remains in jail involves Samuel Morris Christian, who allegedly conducted a false arbitration practice within the Gandhinagar Nyay Mandir’s mediation centre. Posing as a judicial officer, Christian reportedly issued illegal and one-sided arbitration orders as well as forging securities.
The Gujarat High Court censured Christian in June 2023 after the Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC) appealed for the dismissal of a questionable arbitration order from October 2020, which awarded Rs 11.25 crore to Christian’s client.
Despite this rebuke, Christian continued his activities until his arrest on October 21, 2024, following a complaint from the Ahmedabad City Civil Court registrar regarding a land revenue matter.
It is to be noted that he remains the only accused in custody across these cases. There are many other cases apart from the above-mentioned. The list of fakes is indeed long in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s fortress.
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