AMC legal committee member gives cops the slip

AHMEDABAD: A Ramol police team that had gone to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) headquarters in Danapith to arrest Hasmukh Patel — the councillor from Saijpur Bogha — had to return empty handed. Patel, a member of the legal committee of the AMC, managed to escape before the cops could arrest him.
Patel, who is also a notary, and three others have been accused of criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery and abetment in an FIR registered on March 28 by one Bhavna Bharwad at Ramol police station.
The complainant, on Wednesday reached the AMC office in Danapith, as Ramol police had stated that Patel was absconding. As soon as the AMC meeting began, she called the police, and a team rushed to the spot. Patel managed to slip out of the hall and hide somewhere in the AMC office.
Ramol police said Patel and the other accused — Jitu Kotadia, Ashok Kotadia and Hitesh Kotadia — were issued notice two days ago and had five days to appear before investigators.
Bharwad’s FIR states that that her husband, Sanjay, died in 2019. He invested money in a business called Satatya Corporation with Jitu. They were also partners in some construction projects.
She stated that when she asked Jitu about the businesses, he told her that Sanjay had dissolved the partnership on May 13, 2019, in the presence of Patel as a notary, who is now a councillor in the AMC. Jitu told the complainant that her family does not have any rights in Satatya.
She said that when she went through the document, she found one bearing her thumb impression. She said she had not put her thumb impression on any such papers. There were also discrepancies in signatures, and she registered a complaint against Jitu, Ashok, Hasmukh and Hitesh.
Police said Bharwad had made an application of complaint in 2021. The documents were sent to the FSL for analysis after several complaints at the city police commissionerate. The FSL report came back on February 20, 2023, stating that the signatures on the document had been forged and thus she lodged an FIR on March 28.