Farmer’s kidnap, case frame-up: Gujarat High Court orders Ahmedabad police chief to file probe report by Jan 25

Ramesh Makwana, 31, a farmer from Raviya village in Dhanera taluka of Banaskantha district, has filed a petition through lawyer Jayprakash Umoth alleging that he was allegedly “kidnapped” from Dhanera AMPC market in Banaskantha by a team of DCB officials and framed him in a counterfeit currency case. The petitioner has sought court’s directive to lodge an FIR against the policemen. Justice J B Pardiwala, last week, issued notice to the state government and directed police commissioner to look into it.

The petitioner has said that he and his brother Nagji sell agriculture produce to a trading firm “Bhagya Laxmi Trading Company” at APMC, Dhanera. The company owed Rs 2 lakh to them but its owner Dhanabhai Chaudhary has not been paying. On August 22, Makwana had received a call from Chaudhary promising to pay the amount. He reached the APMC market for the payment. The petition alleges that Chaudhary was not in the office so he called him up. At 12:49 pm Chaudhary came to his office and gave Makwana 200 notes of Rs 1,000 totalling Rs 2 lakh. Petition states minutes after the payment a police team arrived at the spot and detained Makwana.

The petition claims that Makwana was brought to DCB office in Ahmedaad at 7 pm in the police jeep while his motorcycle was also taken to office by a constable. He claims that his “detention has been captured in the CCTV camera installed at Dhanera APMC market.”