Ellisbridge police on Sunday arrested a woman who claimed to be the president of Bharatiya Janta Party women’s cell of Gota. Jaini Shukla, 51, was arrested after a complaint of cheating was filed against her.
In 2011, Nirav Shah, a businessman from Paldi, had approached the Ellisbridge police and lodged a complaint against her. He alleged that Shukla had taken Rs6 lakh from him and promised residential plots of the upcoming TP scheme of Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA). According to Shah, Shukla boasted about her contacts in AUDA and other political circuits when he met her through one of his friends in 2010.
Convinced by Shukla’s tall claims of getting the plots at a cheaper rate, Shah gave her Rs5 lakh in cash and Rs1 lakh in cheques. However, she asked him to wait for a few weeks. The delay continued for over a year. When she refused to return the amount she had taken, Shah lodged a complaint of cheating at Ellisbridge police station in 2011.
During investigation, UG Shah, sub inspector of Ellisbridge police station, learnt that Shukla is a resident of Navjeevan complex in Memnagar. He said, “Whenever we went to her home, we found that she was out of city since 2011. Finally, we arrested her as soon as she landed in the city on Sunday”. In her statement, Shukla claimed that she is the president of BJP’s women cell of Gota area and denied having taken any money from Shah. “To prove her claims, she showed a letter head carrying her designation in the party. We are yet to confirm her claims,” Shah added.
According to sources, Shukla’s fraud may run into crores of rupees. They believe that many others might have given her money for the plots, which she siphoned off. However, no one except Shah complained as they might have given her their black money.
