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Dentist cheats Morbi ceramic unit owner of Rs 13 crore

RAJKOT: A ceramic unit owner was duped of Rs 13.60 crore allegedly by a dentist in Umiyanagar locality of Morbi .


Police said the accused, identified as Dr Vasant Bhojaviya, allegedly took money in a parts from Morbi-based ceramic factory owner Vijay Gopani (44) over a period of one year.

In 2016, Gopani came into contact with Dr Bhojaviya and developed friendship with him.

Dr Bhojaviya had first taken Rs 30 lakh from Gopani saying that he had cleared Indian Administrative Services exam, that he had become a collector and that he needed the money.

Stating that since he had already become the collector, he was in a position to do great favours to him, Dr Bhojaviya won Gopani’s trust.

“Dr Bhojaviya said that he would be able to get Gopani a 10-year-long contract worth Rs 800 crore to Rs 1,000 crore, for which he needed a large amount of money to grease the palms of different officials of the government machinery. Then Dr Bhojaviya took a total of Rs 13.30 crore in parts from Gopani,” said Shankar Dodia, head constable with Morbi special operation group .

“When Gopani started asking for the contract, Dr Bhojaviya showed a fake demand draft of Rs 380 crore to Gopani and sent him a fake WhatsApp message stating that a contract worth Rs 9 crore had been sanctioned for him.

However, as no contract saw the light of the day, Gopani realized the fraud and approached the police with the complaint,” added Dodia.

The police investigation revealed that in order to trap Gopani, Dr Bhojaviya had produced a contract paper with Ashoka emblem stating that it was a government’s agreement paper for the contract. Accused had taken Gopani’s signature on the paper.

In his complaint, apart from Dr Bhojaviya, Gopani has named co-accused, identified as Pradeep Karelia of Ahmedabad, Jayesh Solanki of Delhi, Rachana Singh of State Bank of India, who allegedly helped Dr Bhojaviya in the crime.

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