Harni boat tragedy: Police custody of 2 accused extended by 3 days

Jain and Bhatt were reluctant to share information about financial transactions that were allegedly stored on their mobile phones, the SIT told the court.

Out of the 14 accused arrested so far, the police have the custody of four accused — Gopal Shah, Paresh Shah, Nilesh Jain and Alpesh Bhatt, while 10 others have been sent to judicial custody. (Express File Photo)

A Vadodara court Monday extended the police custody of Nilesh Jain and Alpesh Bhatt — accused in the Harni boat capsize case — by three days as the Special Investigation Team (SIT) sought an extension of eight days citing the duo were “uncooperative” in the probe.

The SIT told the court that it was yet to recover the mobile phones of all the accused that have “incriminating evidence” about the financial transactions between the partners from the profits earned from the Harni Lake Zone. Jain and Bhatt were reluctant to share information about financial transactions that were allegedly stored on their mobile phones, the SIT told the court.

Also read | Accused planned escape while Vadodara boat capsize rescue operation was on, police tells court

Apart from co-accused Gopal Shah and Paresh Shah, it was Jain and Bhatt who “ran the show” at the Lake Zone, the police informed the court citing the remand application. “The four are the main accused, apart from Paresh Shah’s son Vatsal Shah, who is yet to be arrested… They are the ones who ran the Lake Zone. The police have learnt that the accused shared details of financial transactions with each other on WhatsApp and have refused to surrender their mobile phones… They have been misleading the police about the mobile phones and also the financial transactions. The cross-verification of the statements given by the four is also pending,” District Government Pleader Anil Desai said. The police custody of Gopal and Paresh were also extended on Saturday.

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According to him, the police also informed the court that Gopal had purchased SIM cards from other states while on the run but “destroyed” them before being apprehended. “Gopal Shah had acquired SIM cards in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, and it is a matter of probe in whose names the cards were procured… why were they destroyed and the location of their phones,” Desai said.

Meanwhile, the police teams continue to look for six other accused yet to be arrested, including Paresh Shah’s family — wife Nutan, daughter Vaishakhi, son Vatsal — and Dharmin Bathani, Dipen Shah and Dharmil Shah, all partners of M/s Kotia projects. Out of the 14 accused arrested so far, the police have the custody of four accused — Gopal Shah, Paresh Shah, Nilesh Jain and Alpesh Bhatt, while 10 others have been sent to judicial custody.

Meanwhile, leaders from the opposition Congress of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) submitted a memorandum to the civic body Commissioner Monday seeking a compensation of Rs 50 lakh for the families of the deceased. “The central and state governments have given a total compensation of Rs 6 lakh to the victims but that is not enough. The VMC must own up to its faults and pay compensation to the families… We have submitted a memorandum seeking Rs 50 lakh. The Harni lake has to be a unique example of a civic body signing an MoU stating it has no responsibility towards incidents in its own property; it cannot be legal to say that,” said Congress leader Chandrakant Shrivastav.

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