Nashik Police to summon Rajasthan CM’s son, others in cheating case
The Nashik Police, which had registered a case of cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal intimidation last week against 14 persons, including Vaibhav Gehlot, the son of Rajasthan’s Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, has said that it will summon the accused for questioning this week.
Senior police inspector Riyaz Shaikh of Gangapur police station said, “The case was registered on Thursday on the directions of Nashik court. So, currently we are scrutinising the documents submitted by the complainant and we shall soon summon each one of them for questioning.”
A complaint was filed on March 17 by a Nashik-based businessman, Sushil Patil, who claimed that he was lured into investing in a company by a man called Sachin Valera who promised him high financial returns.
Valera had claimed that he was a close aide of the Rajasthan CM and his son, Patil said.
“He told me that Vaibhav Gehlot is affiliated with his company, due to which it gets all the tenders of Rajasthan government’s advertisement,” Patil said.
Patil subsequently invested Rs 6.80 crore with Valera, of which Rs 3.93 crore was transferred through RTGS while the remaining amount was given in cash between 2018 and 2022, the complaint stated.
While Valera had promised returns of 10-15 per cent, he stopped paying Patil the money as the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020. When the complainant demanded his money back, he claimed he got a call from Vaibhav Gehlot.
“Nearly about six months after the pandemic started, I spoke to (Vaibhav) Gehlot and he gave me assurance that the business will restart and I will get my share due to which I stopped bothering Valera for a while,” said the complainant.
But as the complainant did not hear anything from Valera or his partners, he started contacting Valera again. Patil said Valera would give him vague reasons and eventually, he stopped answering his calls.
“He even changed his mobile number and whenever I went to his house, his family would claim that he was not there,” said Patil.
When he struggled to reach Valera till February 2022, Patil said, he approached Nashik police and submitted a complaint application.
But fearing that Valera could flee by the time police registered an FIR, the 33-year-old approached the court in Nashik, which passed an order to register an FIR on Thursday.
The persons against whom Gangapur police has registered a case included Valera, Vaibhav Gehlot, Kishan Kantelia, Sardar Singh Chauhan, Pravin Singh Chauhan, Suhas Surendrabhai Makwal, Niravbhai Maheshbhai Virmabhat, Biswaranjan Mohanty, Rajbir Singh Shekhawat, Pragyeshkumar Vinodchandra Prakash, Sanjay Kumar Desai, Sawan Kumar Parner, Rishita Shah and Viraj Panchal.
“The remaining persons are the ones affiliated with Valera’s company and it was their accounts into which the money was transferred,” said a police officer requesting anonymity.
Vaibhav Gehlot, on Saturday, denied the allegations levelled against him.
“Rajasthan Assembly polls are scheduled to be held in 2023. Till then, allegations, counter-allegations, false FIRs will continue. These allegations are baseless,” he said.
