AAP’s Yuvrajsinh Jadeja held in Gujarat on charges of extorting Rs 1 crore from dummy candidate scam accused

Apart from Jadeja, two of his brothers-in-law and three others were also booked.

The Special Operations Group (SOG), Bhavnagar, had initially summoned Jadeja for questioning on April 19 but he had sought two days’ time citing a “medical emergency”.

On April 14, the Bhavnagar LCB had arrested four people for their alleged involvement in a racket where dummy candidates were sent to appear for government recruitment examinations and board examinations in Bhavnagar district. According to the police, the accused had also sent dummy candidates for the junior clerk recruitment examination conducted by the state government last Sunday.

According an FIR registered at Bharatnagar police station in Bhavnagar, Sharad Panot, Prakash alias P K Dave and Baldev Rathod, all residents of Bhavnagar district, allegedly forged hall tickets of candidates for government recruitment examination and Class 10 and 12 board examinations and sent dummy candidates to take the examinations. They allegedly helped several aspirants get recruited into government service since 2012.

The FIR states that the trio used to charge Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh to find a dummy candidate and facilitate the entry of that person into the examination hall. They used to pay Rs 25,000 to the dummy candidate for each exam, the police said.

As per the FIR lodged on Friday night at Bhavnagar’s Nilambaug police station, the complainant S B Bharwad, police inspector of Bhavnagar SOG, said that while questioning Dave in the Bharatnagar case, he learnt that Jadeja got information about people involved in the dummy candidate scam.

The FIR says Dave learnt through his wife Ila that on March 25, Jadeja showed a video where Dave filled in as a dummy candidate for a student named Rishit to a friend Ghanshyam Ladhwa and told him that he would expose Dave. The FIR names Jadeja’s brothers-in-law Shivubha and Kanbha, Ladhwa, Bipin Trivedi and a person named Raju as accused under sections 386 (Extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt), 388 (Extortion by threat of accusation of an offence), and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

As per the FIR, Jadeja reportedly demanded Rs 70 lakh from Dave initially. Later, Jadeja asked Dave to confirm three names, Rajan Dave, Rakesh Baraiya and Parth Pandya, and who worked for them. Finally, the deal was struck at Rs 45 lakh.

On March 29, Dave allegedly arranged for Rs 45 lakh and gave it to Ladhwa. On April 5, Jadeja allegedly assured Dave on a call with Ladhwa that his name will not be among the seven names disclosed by him in the press conference. Later, Dave was allegedly informed that the video on Rishit was shot “forcibly” by Jadeja and that all the names will be disclosed at a press conference. As per the FIR, Jadeja also demanded money from Pradeep Baraiya (also an accused like Dave). A deal of Rs 55 lakh was fixed with Bariya, who allegedly paid the amount by April 4.\