Ahmedabad: A rural court on Tuesday sentenced Nirav Jebaliya, son of former IPS officer B. S. Jebaliya, to three years’ imprisonment after convicting him in a 2023 cheating case involving a forged High Court stay order.

Chief Judicial Magistrate J. A. Baxi found Nirav guilty of cheating, while acquitting him of charges of forgery and criminal intimidation.

The case was registered at Sola police station in August 2023, following a reprimand from the Gujarat High Court over the police’s failure to file an FIR against him.

According to the prosecution, complainant Dinesh Rana alleged that he paid Nirav after being promised a favourable court order to stay the preventive detention of his friend from Deesa in a narcotics case. Nirav allegedly provided a copy of the forged order, which initially carried the year “2013” and later issued a revised version with corrections.

When Rana sought a refund, Nirav allegedly threatened to implicate him in false cases. During the trial, the prosecution examined 10 witnesses and submitted 14 documents, according to the complainant’s counsel, J. J. Abhvekar.

In its sentencing order, the court noted that Nirav, aged 37, is a private pilot with family responsibilities and has already spent two years and seven months in custody. Taking these factors into account, the court said there were sufficient grounds to award a sentence lower than the maximum prescribed under the law. DeshGujarat