Mehsana, Jul 13 A court in Mehsana today sentenced former Gujarat minister and Dudhsagar Dairy’s ex-chairman Vipul Chaudhary to 7 years’ imprisonment in a case of cheating and causing a loss worth Rs 22.5 crores to the dairy in 2014 by supplying cattle feed to Maharashtra without following proper procedures.
Chaudhary is also the former chairman of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which owns the Amul brand. The Mehsana District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Ltd is popularly known as Dudhsagar Dairy. Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate of Mehsana, Y R Agrawal, convicted Chaudhary and 14 others for cheating under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 420 and awarded a jail term of seven years.
Chaudhary, was a minister in the Shankarsinh Vaghela government in 1996. 15 other accused found guilty by court under IPC sections 406 , 465 and 468 and sentenced them to jail terms ranging from 1 to 4 years. An FIR was made against Chaudhay and others at Mehsana ‘B’ division police station in 2014 when he was chairman of the Dudhsagar Dairy and GCMMF. He was then removed from both the GCMMF and Dudhsagar Dairy over alleged corruption charges in cattle fodder procurement.
As per the FIR, Chaudhary, as the dairy chairman, took a decision in 2014 to send cattle feed to drought-hit Maharashtra. However, the state government had alleged the decision of sending the cattle feed worth Rs 22.5 crores was taken without bringing any resolution in the dairy’s board meeting or issuing any tender. The other accused who have also been sentenced to 7 years’ imprisonment include Dudhsagar Dairy’s former board members, its former vice chairperson Jalaben Thakor and former managing director Nishith Baxi.
