Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Monday suspended the life sentence of former IPS officer Jagdish Patel and granted him conditional bail in the 2018 kidnapping case of Surat businessman Shailesh Bhatt, in which cryptocurrency was allegedly extorted from the victim.

Patel, a former Superintendent of Police of Amreli, was among 15 persons, including former BJP MLA Nalin Kotadiya, who were sentenced to life imprisonment by a special ACB court last year in connection with the case.

While hearing Patel’s appeal against conviction, a division bench of Justice Ilesh Vora and Justice R.T. Vachhani granted him regular bail, noting that the case against him was based on circumstantial evidence. The court observed that Patel was charged with criminal conspiracy but was not present either at the circuit house or at the location where the abduction took place.

The bench further noted that there was no material on record to show that Patel was in direct or indirect contact with the co-accused during the period of the offence. On the allegation of ransom, the court said there was no evidence to prove that Patel received any financial benefit from the alleged extortion.

The High Court also took into account the likelihood of delay in hearing the appeal while granting bail to the former police officer.

According to the prosecution, Shailesh Bhatt was abducted by police personnel after he had obtained Bitcoins from another Surat-based businessman, Dhaval Mavani. Investigators alleged that Kotadiya and Patel later learned about the transaction and conspired to extort cryptocurrency from Bhatt. DeshGujarat