Rs 800-cr ‘financial irregularities’: Vipul Chaudhary, his assistant remanded in 7-day police custody

The ACB in a joint operation with the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) in Ahmedabad had on September 15 arrested Chaudhary and Shailesh Parikh.

The arrest, which came following an FIR lodged at Mehsana ACB police station, has alleged that Chaudhary “misused his powers” and in violation of prescribed standard operating procedures and guidelines, issued work orders and contracts, resulting in “financial irregularities”.

It has been alleged that such misuse of powers included bulk purchase of milk coolers without issuance of tenders, awarding contracts for construction to those who quoted a higher price than what was being quoted by the lowest bidder, and similarly for awarding contracts for banners and hoarding of Dudhsagar Dairy.

The ACB had sought 14-day custody for Chaudhary and Parikh. “We mostly relied on the points from FIR and informed the court that we need to probe how many milk coolers were purchased, if there was any departmental committee looking at purchases and if so, who were other members in this committee,” the ACB official said.
According to the ACB, the alleged ill-gotten funds were then routed to 31 companies.

Chaudhary’s wife and son – Gitaben and Pawan – along with Parikh were named as accused and charged under under IPC sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant), 420 (cheating), 465, 467, 468 (forgery), 471 (fraud), 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) along with offences under Prevention of Corruption Act under sections 12 (abetment of offences), 13(1) and 13 (2) (criminal misconduct by a public servant).