Vipul Chaudhary, Ex Home Minister of Gujarat and Ex Chairman of Dudh Sagar Dairy, Mehsana and one of the major players in the cooperative dairy sector politics is detained by the Anti Corruption bureau. He is held in context of an offence (C R No. 5/2022) registered at Mehsana ACB Police Station, under sections 406,409,420,465,467, 468, 471, 120(B) of IPC and sections 12, 13(1), 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act.
Vipul Chaudhary and his CA Shailesh Parikh have been detained by ACB in connection with the ongoing probe concerning alleged financial misappropriation while he was the chairman of Dudh Sagar Dairy where financial misappropriation amounting to more than Rs. 500 crores by bogus transactions through around 25 fake companies have been unearthed. The fake companies were set up in the name of Vipul Chaudhary’s wife. son and CA.
The investigators have caught hold of various bank accounts related to these companies. Apart from the Bonus scam and fodder scam, it is revealed that Vipul Chaudhary indulged in widespread corruption in assigning contracts to advertising agencies for publicity hoardings of Doodh Sagar dairy. He is also accused of having committed financial malpractice in purchase of milk coolers for the dairy.
A former BJP leader, Vipul Chaudhary was home minister in the Shankarsinh Vaghela Govt which came into power by toppling the BJP’s own Keshubhai Patel government. He had cosied up to Congress also in the past. Significantly, he had announced the foundation of Arbuda Sena, a community based sub-regional political outfit.
Vipul Chaudhary is fighting several corruption cases since 2013 regarding the embezzlement of employee bonus money. CID Crime had filed a 2200-page charge sheet in an Ahmedabad Special Court.
Chaudhary, a mechanical engineer had been actively involved in politics since his college days. Actively involved in “Khajuraho Kand ” -a precursor to all resort politics -, he was a close associate of Shankarsinh Vaghela, the original rebel of the cadre-based party.
He was made Home Minister after Vaghela formed the Rashtriya Janata Party and captured power with the help of the Congress in 1997 for 22 months. He rejoined the Bharatiya Janata Party, and soon after, was re-elected chairman of Dudhsagar Dairy. He is a former chairman of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) also known as ‘Amul”.
In 2020, an Ahmedabad Sessions Court granted relief to Vipul Chaudhary, in an alleged bonus scam of Rs 14.8 crore, allowing him to file nomination for the election of Mehsana Dudhsagar dairy management committee elections.
The court had sent Chaudhary to judicial custody after he was kept in six days police remand of Gujarat Crime Investigation Department (CID) Crime and Railways who arrested him in December 2020 on charges of siphoning off Rs 14.8 crore meant as bonus for the workers of Mehsana Dudhsagar Dairy.
Vipul Chaudhary had been sacked earlier from both Amul’s parent company GCMMF and Dudhsagar dairy over his alleged role in connection with Rs 22 crore cattle fodder scam.
Not one to avoid controversies, Vipul was involved in the removal of the founder of Amul, Verghese Kurien. His political duels with his bitter critic and arch-rival in the dairy politics Parthi Bhatol have been on and off over several decades.
Also Read: Amul Hikes Milk Prices By ₹2 Per Litre In Ahmedabad & Saurashtra
