Citing Rahul’s case, Congress demands removal of convicted BJP corporator

Joshi said, “As per the GPMC Act, any councillor, who has been sentenced by any court to imprisonment of a term exceeding six months, involving moral turpitude, should be disqualified. The Act also states that the expiry of such a sentence does not entitle a person to continue as a councillor or to stand for an election or by-election held during the remainder of the current term of office.”

In the letter, the Congress stated, “Like Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha within 24 hours after being handed out a sentence of two years imprisonment in a defamation case, similarly, the BJP should keep up its principle and also apply the same to its own councillor in the VMC, who is eligible for disqualification under the GPMC Act.”

Kalpesh has previously been sentenced to one year of imprisonment by a judicial magistrate first class court last April in a cheque bounce case of an amount of Rs 25 lakh. On July 19, he was convicted by Vadodara Chief Judicial Magistrate M S Baqui in a second case of dishonoured cheque issued in September 2017.

According to the prosecution, complainant Keyur Patel had approached the court after Kalpesh “did not display” an intention to pay him Rs 1.8 crore that he owed as part of an understanding regarding the sale of a property in which both parties had a stake.

Keyur had said that the total amount due to him from Kalpesh was Rs 2.17 crore, out of which, Kalpesh had paid him Rs 66 lakh. The remaining sum, however, was to be paid later.

On March 6, 2017, Kalpesh had drawn a cheque of Baroda Central Cooperative Bank in favour of Keyur but thereafter “requested the complainant to not deposit the cheque in the bank as Kalpesh Patel had suffered a brain hemorrhage and was under financial distress due to medical expenses”.

The court had observed that once Kalpesh recovered, Keyur requested him to honour his promise of payment. Kalpesh then issued another cheque of Rs 2.09 crore on September 30, 2017, which was returned due to “insufficient funds”.
The court on Wednesday sentenced Kalpesh to one year simple imprisonment and directed him to pay Keyur Rs 1.43 crore, considering the installment Kalpesh had paid earlier.