New Delhi, 31 March 2014

Porbandar District judge I B Vaghela on Monday deferred court’s verdict on Gujarat cabinet minister Babubhai Bokhiria’s sentence till April 4 in the Rs 54-crore illegal limestone mining case of 2006 on technical grounds. The court has reserved the verdict till April 4.

Manager of Saurashtra Chemical Company, Umesh Bhavsar had lodged a complaint against Bokhiria in this connection in 2006 when Bokhiria was not minister.

Babubhai Bokhiria later became Agriculture and Water Resources Minister in the BJP government in Gujarat.

He was sentenced to three years of imprisonment along with his three partners Bharat Odedara, Bheema Odedara and Lakshman Odedara by the Chief Judicial Magistrate First Class in Porbandar in June last. The court had imposed a fine of Rs five thousand each on the four.

However, in July last year, Bokhiria got a stay from the Gujarat High Court and directed him to move the district court in Porbandar to appeal against the lower court’s verdict.

RTI activist Dilip Katariya had filed an application in Porbandar court on Saturday urging it to defer the judgement as Bokhiria has secured a stay from the high court against the conviction. The court considered Katariya’s appeal and reserved the verdict till April 4.