Following directions from the Gujarat High Court, the Surat police is all set to file an FIR and proceed to arrest diamond and real estate businessman Vasant Gajera and his two brothers in a cheating case based on the complaint filed by a real estate businessman Praveen Agrawal alleging that the brothers had sold off his stakes in a firm fraudulently, reducing it from 43% to 4.02%.
The High Court had directed police to file an FIR in the case after Agrawal moved a petition seeking court’s directions to police to register criminal action against Vasant Gajera and his brothers Ashok and Rakesh.
Vasant’s older brother Dhiru Gajera is a former MLA — elected on BJP and Congress tickets on different occasions – and both are seen as influential in the Patidar community.
Disposing of Praveen Agrawal’s petition on February 12, the High Court said in its order: “The contents of the application submitted by the petitioner before police authorities (EOW, Surat), shall be taken into consideration while registering the FIR and the provisions of the law shall be invoked as mentioned in the application submitted by the petitioner.”
Surat Commissioner of Police Anupam Singh Gahlaut told The Indian Express that forensic investigations had confirmed that the signatures on certain documents were forged.
The accused are alleged to have business links with fugitive offender Mehul Choksi of Gitanjali Group who is accused in the PNB scam worth Rs 12,600 crore.
In his petition to the Gujarat High Court, filed earlier this year, Agrawal stated that he had 43 per cent shares holdings and is a director in Shanti Residences Pvt. Ltd, a real estate company headquartered in Mumbai, while the other directors were Vasant Gajera and others of Surat.
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Agarwal alleged that the accused had forged the signatures of him, his wife, and father on the documents submitted to government offices and the Registrar of Companies, and had transferred all shares, leaving the Agrawals with only 4.02 per cent of shares in Shanti Residences Pvt. Ltd.
“The accused, with the help of such fake documents and fake digital signatures, annulled the complainant’s directorship from Shanti Residences Pvt Ltd. The accused had sold the company’s properties and recorded a lesser value in the company’s books of account,” Agrawal said in the petition. He alleged that the money was sent to Hong Kong via hawala and one of the Gajera brothers, Rakesh, invested the money in the firm posing as a ‘foreign investor’,” Agrawal alleged.
The petition has termed the Gajera brothers “habitual offenders in crimes related to properties and forgery” and claimed eight complaints had been registered against Vasant Gajera and his brothers at different police stations in Surat from 2009 to 2019.
The Surat Commissioner of Police said the investigations into the complaint had already been done by the Economic Offence Wing on the basis of an application submitted by Agrawal to the Surat police in 2022.
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“We have recently received the forensic reports that confirm that the signatures on the documents were forged. On the basis of the Gujarat High Court order, we will register an offence against Vasant Gajera, Ashok Gajera and Rakesh Gajera, and will carry out arrest procedures,” Gahlaut said.
Surat Assistant Commissioner of Police (Economic Offence Wing) G A Sarvaiya told The Indian Express that a major part of the investigation had been completed.
“The reason behind the delay in the process of registering the offence was that the accused had objected to the investigations carried out against him, and some reports linked to the investigations were pending. A major part of the investigations is done, and on the basis of the application, we will register an offence against the accused,” Sarvaiya said.
Last week, the Surat Income Tax Department Investigation Wing carried out searches at 30 premises linked to Vasant Gajera and his brothers in Surat and Mumbai. The teams had recovered several “incriminating documents” related to properties and lands and unaccounted money from the accused. The officials had also seized cash and jewellery and sealed the bank lockers of the accused.
