Rajkot/Mount Abu: The close aide of PAAS convener Hardik Patel and a senior functionary of the pro-quota outfit, Dinesh Bambhaniya alias Dinesh Patel and one of his old associate were today arrested from Mount Abu by a team of Rajkot police in connection with a forgery case involving Rs 1.97 crore lodged by one of his close relatives, police said.

The case of illegal withdrawal of Rs 1.97 crore from the cash credit account of one Sureshbhai Moraviya (brother in law of Dinesh – husband of his cousin sister) in Dena Bank’s Devar road branch in Rajkot.

PI of Bhaktinagar police station, where the case was lodged around a month ago, V K Gadhvi, who led the team that arrested Dinesh and his partner Rajesh Umrethia (both directors of a company by name Srinathji Cotex pvt ltd to which the amount was transferred through 17 cheques/RTGC from the CC account during year 2013), said that the duo was nabbed from close to famous Dilwara temples in Mount Abu today.

His brother in law had lodged the case after long attempts to get the matter settled without police interference.

The then branch manger of the bank was also a co-accused in the matter but had died. The bank manager knew that the duo was transferring money from the CC account with forged signature.

Dinesh and his partner have been booked under section 467, 468 and 471 of the IPC among others. There is a provision of a punishment of up to 10 years for the crime, the PI who was on way to Rajkot from Mount Abu said.

To a query about the high court’s restriction on Dinesh’s movement outside Gandhinagar as per the conditions of the bail granted to him in a sedition case, the PI said that he was not aware of it and he thought that Dinesh had got the inkling of his arrest in the case and must have gone go Mount Abu to hide as an attempt to evade arrest.

Notably, Hardik Patel, who has also lost most of his appeal since his return to Gujarat in January this year after spending 6 months outside Gujarat as per the bail condition in two sedition cases including the one in which Dinesh was a co-accused, has also been accused of misuse of funds collected in the name of quota stir by his former aides though no formal complaint in this regard has been filed yet.

DeshGujarat