Gujarat: Days before bail hearing in second case, third FIR against Hiralba in Junagadh

The latest FIR, filed on the basis of a complaint by PSI HJ Barad on behalf of the State, at Junagadh Range Cybercrime Police station on May 30, booked Hiralba Jadeja, Naitik Mavani, Sachin Mehta and Hitesh Odedara (also accused in other two cases with Hiralba). The accused have been booked under BNS Sections 336(2) (forgery), 336(3) (forgery with intent to cheat), 338 (forgery of valuable documents), 340(2) (forged documents or electronic records), 318(4) (cheating), 317(2) (possession of stolen property), 317(4) (stolen property) and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) and under The Information Technology Act.

Police officials in Junagadh said that they received information from Porbandar Police about three “suspicious bank accounts that had been traced back to Hiralba Jadeja and were being operated from Junagadh”, following which a preliminary investigation was done by the Local Crime Branch, leading to the third FIR.

The FIR stated that a firm named Arham Commodities operated eight bank accounts while another firm Vitthal Pulse Commodities operated another eight bank accounts, and Bharat Enterprise operated six accounts across nine banks.

Police investigation allegedly found that there were 83 cybercrime complaints filed against several of these bank accounts on the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (NCCRP) and Samanvay Portal across 17 states and one UT.

The FIR stated that the police got in touch with the three men listed as proprietors of Arham Commodities, Vitthal Pulse Commodities, and Bharat Enterprise, who all allegedly pointed to Hiralba Jadeja and the other three accused of having setting up the firms and the associated bank accounts without their knowledge.

LCB Inspector JJ Patel said that details of the money transactions in the 22 bank accounts had been sought from the nine banks and further investigation had been handed over to the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Junagadh Police.

Case History

On April 30, Hiralba Jadeja, a member of the powerful political clan of Kutiyana in Porbandar, was booked by Harbour Marine police on charges of abduction, extortion and criminal intimidation among other sections of the BNS after Leelu Kuchhadiya, who is in Israel, posted a video since viral on social media, claiming that her husband Bhanu and minor son Ranjit had been abducted by Jadeja and others for about 17 days and made to sign several blank cheques, demanding a sum of Rs 70 lakh from them. She was subsequently arrested on May 1, 2025.

On May 15, Hiralba Jadeja was booked along with five others in an FIR filed by PSI VR Chavda on behalf of the State, at the cybercrime police station in Porbandar district, for controlling several mule bank accounts registered in the name of poor people. These bank accounts were prima facie found to contain proceeds of crime. The number of these alleged benami bank accounts was found to be at least 50 during the probe. She was arrested in this case on May 20, 2025.

According to Porbandar Police DySP Surjeet Mahedu, Jadeja received bail in the extortion case on May 26 but continued to remain in Porbandar Jail in the second case. The bail application in this cybercrime case is up for hearing in a local Porbandar court on June 3, 2025.