Bogus warrants scam prime accused arrested

Vadodara, June 29 (UNI) Vado dara crime branch sleuths have arrested Bharat Bhojwani, one of the prime accused in the bogus warrants scam that had rocked Gujarat in 1994.

Bhojwani, a businessman of Dabhoi who was absconding since January 2004 after the Supreme Court ordered reinvestigation into the scam by Vadodara CID (Crime) branch, was arrested near Warasia ring road here yesterday and handed over to the CID police.

Though a city court remanded Bhojwani to ten days police custody later in the day, the police admitted him to the SSG Hospital after he complained of chest pain, DSP (CID) R B Chauhan told UNI today.

The investigating agency had so far arrested 19 people, including two judicial magistrates, three lawyers, one court clerk and eight police personnel from different parts of Gujarat for their alleged involvement in the scam.

They had been booked for allegedly registering as many as ten false criminal offences against a Mumbai-based bank official, Manohar Galani, in various courts of Gujarat in 1994 and issuing warrants against him at the instance of another Mumbai-based businessman and prime accused Kishore Keshwani.

The DSP said Bhojwani was the key person in Gujarat, who at the instance of Keshwani and his two sons, framed Galani in bogus criminal offences and warrant cases following a monetary dispute between Keshwani and Galani in 1994.

Galani was arrested in March, 1994, in Vadodara after different courts in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Padra, Jamkhambaliya, Bajwa, Borsad, Dakor and Dabhoi issued warrants against him on ''false'' cases of attempt to rape, assault, abduction, cheating and dacoity.

After Galani lodged an FIR with the Vadodara CID (Crime) saying that he had been framed on bogus and false charges, the case moved to the Supreme Court which finally ordered the CID to reinvestigate into the false cases.

On January 30, 2004, the investigating agency made its first arrest in the bogus warrant scam by taking into custody Bhojwani's elder brother Subhas Bhojwani, chairman of the Dabhoi Nagarpalika town planning committee. Prime accused Bharat had, however, managed to escape when police raided their Dabhoi house.

The police is still on a took-but of ten other accused including Kishor Tiwari, his two sons and advocate Gopal Bamani.

UNI SS MAZ HS RAI/KP1925