Three weeks after Congress Dalit leader Rajesh alias Raju Solanki threatened to convert to Islam if the state government didn’t take action against Gondal BJP MLA Geetaba Jadeja and her husband in connection with the alleged assault on his son, Raju and four of his family members were booked under the stringent Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime (GUJCTOC) Act, for allegedly running a crime syndicate since 2014, said police on Saturday. Based on a complaint filed by inspector JJ Patel, in-charge of Local Crime Branch (LCB), Junagadh district, an FIR under GUJCTOC Act Sections 3(1)(2), 3(4) — related to organised crime — and the Arms Act was registered at A Division Police Station in Junagadh Saturday morning. In his complaint, Patel named Raju, his brother Jayesh alias Javo alias Savan Solanki, his sons Sanjay and Dev and nephew Yogesh Bagda as accused. Later in the day, police arrested Raju, his two sons and nephew. Jayesh is in judicial custody in an attempt to murder case involving a doctor. According to the complaint, the five were allegedly involved in crimes like attempted murder, assaulting policemen, theft, robbery, rioting, extortion, kidnapping, criminal intimidation etc for the past 10 years. The FIR while listing 10 criminal cases previously filed against Raju, also the president of SC/ST cell of Junagadh unit of Congress, said that he was “the gang’s leader”. As per the FIR, nine, six, three and two cases were registered against Jayesh, Sanjay, Yogesh and Dev respectively. The offences registered under the GUJCTOC Act are non-bailable and the police can get remand of accused for up to 30 days continuously. Under the Act, the police get six months to file a charge-sheet, penal provisions include life imprisonment and attachment of property which are proceeds of crime and confessions made before police officers are admissible as evidence. The case against Raju comes three weeks after he and others collected application forms from Junagadh collector office on July 11 for converting to Islam. Raju had demanded that the ruling BJP seek resignation of its MLA Geetaba and arrest her husband Jayrajsinh in a case of attempt to murder and kidnapping registered after his son Sanjay was allegedly assaulted, kidnapped and threatened by 11 men on the intervening night of May 30 and 31 this year. Geetaba’s son Jyotiradityasinh alias Ganesh and 10 others were later arrested in the case. Raju had threatened that if the state government didn’t grant his demand by August 15 this year, he and his family members would convert to Islam. Rejecting the allegation of the case being a “retaliatory action”, Superintendent of Police Harshad Mehta told The Indian Express: “The criminal cases against the five accused were not registered after the case filed against the MLA’s son. These accused had formed a gang. Due to Raju’s criminal activities, in the past also proposals were prepared to extern him from Junagadh but they didn’t go through. On closer analysis of cases, we found that all the accused were acting as a gang and Raju was their leader. So, suggestions that the GUJCTOC Act case against them is a retaliatory action are not true,” said the SP. Despite the high-profile case involving Sanjay, the gang continued with their criminal activities. “Jayesh and three others assaulted and attempted to murder a doctor on June 11 over an old dispute. The doctor sustained serious injuries and is still in hospital. After that, Jayesh was absconding for over a month. He was finally arrested by LCB three days ago,” said Mehta. Earlier, Junagadh police had filed a chargesheet against the 11 accused in the assault on Sanjay who is also president of Junagadh city unit of National Students Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of Congress. “We have conducted an impartial investigation into the case of kidnapping and attempted murder. We have found enough evidence suggesting the victim was kidnapped from Junagadh and was dropped back after a few hours and therefore a chargesheet has been filed,” Mehta said.
