A village Sarpanch who is also the husband of a BJP leader in Morbi and a ceramic factory owner who is the son of a prominent Patidar leader were among five booked Monday for allegedly creating parallel roads to an authorised National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) toll plaza on a busy national highway near Wankaner town and extorting road tax from vehicles taking the bypasses. Police have booked Amarshi Patel, Ravirajsinh Zala, Harvijaysinh Zala, Dharmedrasinh Zala and Dharmendrasinh’s brother Yuvrajsinh Zala based on a complaint by constable Yashpalsinh Parmar. “No one has been detained or arrested so far in this connection. Efforts are on to arrest the accused,” said Morbi Superintendent of Police Rahul Tripathi. A resident of Nava Vaghasia village, Dharmendrasinh is the incumbent Sarpanch of Vaghasia village and is the husband of Riyaba Zala - former president of Wankaner municipality and a sitting BJP member of the same taluka panchayat. Patel is the son of a prominent social leader of Patidar community from Saurashtra. According to the FIR, he is also the authorised person of White House Ceramic - a defunct ceramic tile manufacturing unit abutting the eastern side of the bogus toll plaza. According to the complaint, the accused created two gates in the compound wall of White House Ceramic and laid a road through the premises of the factory. They then forced vehicles going towards Wankaner from Morbi to take the road bypassing the NHAI toll plaza on NH 8A to extort toll. The complaint added that the ceramic factory has remained closed for the past one-and-a-half years due to a market slump. The FIR states that the accused forced vehicles going towards Morbi from Wankaner to divert on an approach road leading to the Vaghasia village located west of the NHAI toll plaza and extorted money from drivers to allow them to go back to the highway after bypassing the authorised toll plaza. NH 8A connects Morbi, the tile town of India, as well as Kandla and Mundra ports to central and southern India. Kandla and Mundra are the country’s largest public and private ports respectively in terms of handling volumes of cargo. An FIR was lodged at the Wankaner town police station Monday under IPC Sections 384 (extortion), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 320 (causing grievous hurt by doing an act so rashly and negligently as to endanger human life or the personal safety of others), 506(2) (criminal intimidation) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intent). The FIR alleged that by diverting traffic to the bypass roads and extorting money from drivers, the accused caused financial losses to Bamanbore Tollway Pvt Ltd (BTPL), a private firm that has been authorised by the NHAI to collect toll from vehicles at Vaghasia toll plaza on NH 8A. BTPL charges Rs 110 from a motor car for a one-way journey, while light commercial vehicles have to pay Rs 180. The toll for buses and trucks are Rs 380, while it is in the Rs 410-Rs 720 range for multiple-axle vehicles. The FIR came after a team, led by Wankaner sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) AH Sherasiya, comprising Morbi district police officers undertook a surveillance drive near the Vaghasiya toll plaza following media reports, district collector GT Pandya said. “The media report said some vehicles were taking roads bypassing the Vaghasia toll gate. They were doing it by using roads passing through White House factory and Vaghasia village. So, teams of our SDM and police undertook a checking drive, recorded statements of locals as well as (drivers) of vehicles which were passing by and filed a detailed FIR,” Pandya said. Talking to The Indian Express, the collector said NHAI and BTPL had complained to his office about the illegal activity in the past. “However, they were not willing to file a formal complaint with the police. Today also, BTPL executives said they did not have authorisation from their higher-ups for giving a formal complaint to the police. Therefore, a policeman filed a complaint on behalf of the Gujarat government,” said Pandya.
