Ahmedabad: Former Chairman of ‘Dudhsagar Dairy, Mehsana’  Vipul Mansingbhai Chaudhary and his associates Shailesh Parikh (Chartered Accountant) are arrested in connection with C.R. No. 05/2022 of Mahesana ACB Police Station.

According to ACB, Vipul Chaudhary, his wife Gitaben Chaudhary, son Pavan Chaudhary and CA Parikh are booked in this case. Vipul Chaudhary and CA Parikh are arrested so far. The scam is worth Rs. 800 crore or more. Vipul’s son and wife were registered as directors of companies and therefore they are also booked. Questioning of Vipul Chaudhary and CA Parikh is underway.

Watch: Dudhsagar Dairy scams accused Vipul Chaudhary and his CA aide in Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) custody today. As per ACB, the economic irregularities are pegged at Rs. 800 crore in this case. Money laundering through 31 shell companies also involved. https://t.co/Y8UwIx84ve pic.twitter.com/iBVEcxfUZA

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When he was a chairman of Dudhsagar Dairy, the district registrar had done audit of the dairy and a special audit was ordered by him further. Chaudhary had approached the High Court against the decision. The High Court verdict was in favor of special audit. Two teams were formed for special audit – team A and team B. Both teams covered 14 points each. Economic irregularities were found out during Chaudhary’s tenure. As per the Cooperative Society section 86, one advocate was appointed as choksi adhikari. 10 points of irregularities were finalized out of 28 in which criminal case and money laundering contents were concluded. In 2022 April the report was submitted and it was further submitted to Home department, it was further sent to crime branch of Ahmedabad Police. The Crime Branch concluded the grounds for application of criminal section, money laundering and prevention of corruption act as public servant. Finally, the cooperative department registered complaints with ACB.

During Vipul Chaudhary’s tenure, milk coolers were purchased in large scale manner and guidelines of their purchases were breached. Construction worth Rs. 485 crore took place during his tenure without tendering process. When removed from the post of Chairman, Chaudhary had filed revision application in personal capacity and roped in lawyers but he had done all this expenses from the exchequers of Mahesana Dudh Utpadak Sangh. Lowest offer was ignored while purchasing the bags of Sagar dan cattle feed, causing Rs. 13 lakh loss. The agency for publicity – hoardings was decided ignoring the lowest offer.

The sum collected through corruption was settled through 31 shell companies that were registered using fake documents. Bank accounts were opened in name of these companies and money was laundered.

Meanwhile, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed for probe into this case. The SIT is led by DIG Makrand Chauhan. One DySP and three Police Inspectors are part of this SIT. DySP Austosh Parmar and Inspectors Hardik Chavda, JM Gadhvi and TOral Patel are part of this SIT.

DeshGujarat