NRI lodges complaint against contractor, 4 workers in Bilimora gold sovereign theft case

Hawaben’s complaint stated that she had purchased the house registered with the Bilimora Nagar Palika from her husband Imtiyaz Balia’s cousin Nisar Balia in 2009. She used to reside at the house whenever she visited India.

During her last visit in December 2022, she found the house in a dilapidated condition and hence, hired Karadiya through her relative to demolish the entire structure. The complaint stated that she had clearly told Karadiya to hand over to her if any document or something valuable was found from the house. Karadiya remained silent despite being aware of the gold discovery, the complaint stated.

The work had commenced from January 18 and the entire house was demolished by January 28. Hawaben left for the UK in the meantime. Karadiya had also paid her Rs 1.15 lakh for the old log of wood and doors and other items recovered from the house. However, she received a call from the Madhya Pradesh police on July 21, 2022, inquiring about the details of the four workers involved in the demolition. The police told her that the workers allegedly found the gold sovereigns and had left for their native place.

According to the police, all four workers decided to quietly distribute the coins equally among themselves. Back in MP, one of the workers — Ramkubai — went to a jeweller in Alirajpur with one sovereign to check for its authenticity.

Slowly, the entire village learnt about the gold coins. The news also reached Sendhwa police station. On July 19, four policemen (Sendhwa station incharge Vijay Dawda, and constables Suresh Chauhan, Rakesh Dawer and Vijendra Singh) made a note in the station diary that they had received information regarding illegal liquor being stocked and sold from a house in Baijada village. They reached Ramku’s house and carried out a “search operation for illegal liquor”.

The policemen found a freshly dug cavity and the gold, and seized it. “To cover their tracks, they went back to the police station and added a note in the station diary that no illegal liquor had been found in the village,” Alirajpur Superintendent of Police Hansraj Singh had told The Indian Express.

Following this, a close relative of Ramkubai lodged a complaint of around 220 gold sovereigns with the Sendhwa police station against their police staffers on July 21.

The four, who were at large, were soon suspended and arrested by Alirajpur police in August. However, during their interrogation, they denied their role in the theft from Ramkubai’s house, said Alirajpur Additional Superintendent of Police Sakharam Sengar.

Meanwhile, police said Karadiya has rejected Hawaben’s claims. “He told us that he came to know about this incident when the Madhya Pradesh police had called him and took his statements… We will go to Alirajpur and meet them (the workers) and take their statements in the coming days,” Navsari LCB Police sub-inspector Yogesh Gadhvi said, adding, “A complaint of theft of gold sovereigns was registered with Sendhwa police station in Alirajpur, and we will also get details from them.”