Bokhiria fails to arrive from London

Ahmedabad, Nov 5 (UNI) It was a wait in vain for the Gujarat police at the Sardar Patel International Airport today as Bharatiya Janata Party Porbander city president Babu Bokhiria, accused in the Rs 54 crore illegal mining case, failed to turn up from London.

Bokhiria's lawyer Bharat Lakhani had assured the court yesterday that his client was a responsible citizen and not an absconder, and would return to Ahmedabad from London today by a Jet Airways flight.

Bokhiria was supposed to return here from London this morning as the Gujarat High Court had rejected his anticipatory bail application in the minerals theft case.

The police waited at the Sardar Patel International Airport since 1000 hrs today but Mr Bokhiria did not arrive.

A complaint of illegal mining had been filed by Saurashtra Chemicals Limited in October 2006 against four persons -- BJP's Porbandar city president Babu Bokhiria, Bhima Odedara and his son Laxman, and former Congress MP Bharat Odedara. Bhima and Laxman Odedara were arrested in November last year, but police had not arrested Bharat Odedara and Babu Bokhiria. After the intervention of the High Court, the police arrested Bharat Odedara in the last week of September this year.

The High Court had intervened on a petition by Bhagu Devani, president of Porbandar Hitrakshak Samiti, who had filed a PIL alleging that the police was dithering to arrest Bharat Odedara and Babu Bokhiria even after the exposure of Rs 54 crore illegal mining case.

UNI