The Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Monday arrested five persons, including a member of the executive committee of the Gujarat BJP’s OBC cell and two journalists, for allegedly trying to frame at least two IPS officers in a rape case, in a bid to extort Rs 8 crore from them. According to the ATS, the arrested are GK Prajapati who was BJP OBC cell executive committee member, journalists working as stringers in Gujarati online portals — Ashutosh Pandya and Kartik Jani, Surat-based middleman Haresh Jadhav and Mahendrasinh Parmar who does liaison work. The investigation began after a 33-year-old woman’s affidavit claiming that a top police officer raped her at his residence in Chandkheda area of the city went viral on social media recently, ATS stated in a press release. Prajapati, along with Jadhav and Parmar, allegedly hatched the conspiracy and convinced the woman to sign the false affidavit and took the help of journalists to circulate and publish the affidavit, the ATS official said. Following his arrest, the Gujarat BJP suspended Prajapati with immediate effect. Joshi told The Indian Express that “the accused had tried to frame at least two IPS officers”. On January 15, the woman filed a complaint against one Ismail Malek, who she was married to, at the Pethapur police station, saying he often forced her to enter into physical relationship with his friends and business acquaintances, according to court records. The FIR was filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 376 (rape), 376 (2)(n) (repeated rape), 384 (extortion), 386 (extortion by putting person in fear of death or grievous hurt), 506 (2) (criminal intimidation), 495 (concealment of previous marriage), 114 (abetment) and under the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act 2003 and its amended provisions under section 3, 4, and 4 (a) (forcible conversion). A Gandhinagar court rejected bail to Malek on February 7 and he is still in judicial custody. According to the ATS, the woman came in contact with BJP worker Prajapati alias GK Dada, before filing the complaint, and told him that Malek had taken her to a bungalow in Chandkheda, where a man around 45 years of age, identified as a “top police officer of Ahmedabad”, raped her twice. The said police officer had allegedly promised to free her brother who was facing charges of theft, extortion and other charges in a case filed by Malek against the woman and her family members in November 2022, she told Prajapati, according to ATS. However, as per the ATS, Prajapati allegedly advised the woman not to record the details of rape in her Pethapur complaint. As per the ATS, Prajapati then introduced the woman to Surat-based middleman Haresh Jadhav. In her presence, Prajapati and Jadhav allegedly discussed a plan to extort Rs 8 crore from “the top Ahmedabad police official”. In the meantime, Prajapati and Jadhav held discussions with their Pandya and Jani about a plan to add a top police official’s name to the woman’s “love jihad case” and take Rs 8 crore from him. Later when Prajapati showed a photo of the police officer to the woman, she said that the particular officer “had done no wrong to her”, the ATS statement said. According to the ATS, Prajapati and Jadhav then decided to name another police officer, and a revised affidavit was drafted on January 28. According to the ATS, new paragraphs with the name of some police officers were added to the affidavit without her knowledge. She allegedly signed it on February 1 without reading it. Jadhav and another accused, Mahendrasinh Parmar alias Raju Gemini, allegedly contacted subordinates of police officers repeatedly and threatened to frame the officers in the rape case. All the five accused were arrested from Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar and an FIR was lodged at the Sector 7 police station under IPC sections 389 (attempts to put any person in fear of an accusation in order to commit extortion) and 120B (criminal conspiracy). The Gujarat BJP on Monday issued a statement issued by party general secretary Pradipsinh Vaghela, stating that Prajapati, a member of the OBC Morcha’s executive, was dismissed as party’s primary member with immediate effect. In a release, the ATS stated that the five had hatched a conspiracy to “create fear by falsely including names of top police officials in an affidavit and circulating the same through press, news channels and social media by pressurising a victim woman”.
