Sohrabuddin case: How Patel bros were ‘fleeced’

Suspended IPS officer Abhay Chudasama had allegedly used Sohrabuddin Sheikh against the Patel brothers of Popular Builders with dubious intentions against the gangster as well.

According to sources, Chudasama asked Sohrabuddin to fire at the Popular Builders office in Navarangpura because he wanted to make a case against the gangster. Sohrabuddin obeyed the police officer and, in 2004, his associates fired at the builders' office.

After the firing, Chudasama extorted money from the Patel brothers first by threatening to implicate them in the firing case and, later, by threatening to make them accused in the Sohrabuddin fake encounter case. But how did Chudasama come to target the Patel brothers for his allegedly extortionist plans?

Chudasama's allegedly extortionist interest in the builders goes back to 2001. Raman Patel and Dashrath Patel, who are among the major builders of Ahmedabad, owed one Manilal Ghoshar a huge amount of money.

In 2001, Ghoshar put pressure on the Patels to pay him Rs1.50 crore but the builder brothers offered him land instead of cash, saying that they were facing a liquidity crunch. Ghoshar declined their offer and began to put pressure on them through some unidentified persons.

A common friend of the Patels and Ghoshar comes into the picture here. Because of his mediation, the two parties came to a settlement with the Patels giving Rs50 lakh in cash and land worth of Rs1 crore.

Out of nowhere, Chudasama appears. He was then DCP with Gujarat's Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS). The police officer allegedly called the Patels and asked them about the land-and-cash deal.

He threatened to book them in a case. When he threatened them several times, the Patels agreed to pay Chudasama Rs40 lakh. Sources said Chudasama had allegedly himself come to the Popular Builders office in his private car to collect the Rs40 lakh. After that Chudasama reportedly also participated in the settlement of the Patels' dispute with Ghoshar.

The Patel brothers again found themselves at the receiving end of Chudasama's alleged extortionist demands after the firing at their office in 2004. Tulsi Prajapati and Sylvester, both aides of Sohrabuddin, had carried out the firing as demanded by Chudasama. The police officer allegedly used the firing incident to extort money from the Patels and book the gangsters in a case.

Henceforth, the Patel brothers began to keep a distance from Chudasama, Amit Shah and their associates allegedly because of the repeated extortion demands made by the IPS officer and the others.

In 2010, the Patel brothers gave statements before the CBI in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case as per Amit Shah's wishes, allegedly because they were threatened by Ajay Patel, Chudasama and Shah.