City’s leading jewellers denied anticipatory bail

Vadodara: A sessions court here rejected anticipatory bail pleas of two members of a leading jewellers’ family of the city in a case of cheating registered in February at the Gotri police station. Mitesh Choksi and his wife Deepa had sought anticipatory bail last month pleading innocence in the case. Mitesh is son of Harish Choksi, who along with his three brothers had started R Narayan Jewellers on RC Dutt Road in 1991. Harish and his other son Dhananjay were also booked in the case along with Mitesh and Deepa on the basis of complaint filed by Ramakant Choksi, Harish’s brother.
Seeking bail, the couple told the court that this is a civil dispute and police have wrongly registered a criminal case against them. Their arguments were contested on the grounds that it was the high court that had directed Gotri police station to register a case as the police had initially refused to file the plaint. Along with the bail pleas, the accused also filed an application in the high court requesting it to recall its order directing registration of FIR.

“The court took into consideration our arguments for turning down their bail applications. It also said that there is enough evidence against the accused and their custodial interrogation is necessary for investigation of the case,” said Ramakant’s lawyer Hitesh Gupta.

The case was registered as Harish had allegedly misused a power of attorney of the jointly-owned jewellery showroom on RC Dutt Road to sell it to Dhananjay, Mitesh and Deepa. The three brothers had given Harish the power of attorney in 1995 to refurbish the old building. The misuse was learnt only in December 2018 when Ramakant’s wife Ila received a letter from the city survey department.