Former Gujarat home minister Vipul Chaudhary held by ACB for 'financial irregularities' in Dudhsagar Dairy

Former Gujarat home minister Vipul Chaudhary has been arrested by the state Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) in a case of alleged irregularities of nearly Rs 800 crore at Dudhsagar Dairy in Mehsana, a senior official said on Thursday.

Ahmedabad: Former Gujarat home minister Vipul Chaudhary has been arrested by the state Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) in a case of alleged irregularities of nearly Rs 800 crore at Dudhsagar Dairy in Mehsana, a senior official said on Thursday. The agency alleged that apart from making money through financial irregularities, Chaudhary, during his tenure as the chairman of Dudhsagar Dairy, had also indulged in money laundering by depositing the proceeds of the crime into bank accounts of 31 companies created for that purpose only.

Chaudhary is a former chairman of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which owns the Amul brand, and has also headed the Mehsana District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Ltd, popularly known as Dudhsagar Dairy in Mehsana. The anti-graft agency also arrested his chartered accountant Shailesh Parikh on Wednesday night from Mehsana town of north Gujarat, said Joint Director of ACB Makrand Chauhan in Gandhinagar.

Mehsana ACB had on Wednesday registered a first Information report (FIR) against Chaudhary for his alleged involvement in the financial irregularities of nearly Rs 800 crore when he was the chairman of Dudhsagar Dairy between 2005 and 2016, Chauhan said in a press conference.
He added that the names of Chaudhary's wife Gitaben and son Pavan have been mentioned as co-accused in the FIR as they are directors in some of the companies floated by Chaudhary.

"Chaudhary had misused his power as the dairy chairman. He ignored the procedures in purchasing a large number of milk coolers as well as gunny bags, approved construction worth Rs 485 crore and did not follow the tender route to give the contract for the dairy's outdoor publicity campaign," Chauhan said. In order to legalise the money received through such practices, Chaudhary had floated 31 companies using forged documents and deposited the proceeds of the crime into the bank accounts of those entities, he added.

"This shows that he was also involved in money laundering. The irregularities were first unearthed in a special audit conducted by the state cooperative department in 2018 and then confirmed by a separate probe done by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch," the official said. The FIR pressed charges of cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy and sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act against him, Chauhan said.

Chaudhary had earlier been arrested by the Gujarat Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in 2020 for his alleged involvement in siphoning off Rs 14.8 crore from a fund meant for paying bonus to Dudhsagar Dairy workers. In 2014, he was sacked as the chairman of GCMMF after a no confidence motion was moved by the members of the federation. Later in 2016, he was sacked as the chairman of the Dudhsagar Dairy over alleged corruption in cattle fodder procurement.

Chaudhary, a prominent face of Gujarat's cooperative sector, was home minister in the Shankarsinh Vaghela government in 1996. Vaghela had toppled the BJP government to become the chief minister with the support of the Congress. Recently, Chaudhary had expressed his desire to fight the upcoming Assembly elections in Gujarat, expected to be held in December. Apparently aiming to garner support of his community, he had recently floated 'Arbuda Sena', a non-political outfit.

Following his arrest on Thursday, hundreds of his supporters, led by former vice chairman of Dudhsagar Dairy, Moghjibhai Chaudhary, held a protest outside the collector office in Mehsana claiming that their leader was innocent and that he was deliberately being targeted by the ruling BJP. (PTI)