Mysterious call to Gujarat HC judge: Plot to get pre-arrest bail

AHMEDABAD: After a furious Gujarat high court ordered an inquiry into the mysterious call received by Justice Bela Trivedi asking her in the name of the Congress MLA from Petlad not to grant bail in a case, Anand district police on Thursday resolved the mystery and detained an engineer for making the call. The police probe revealed the petitioner himself had arranged for the call to the judge on Monday, posing as the Congress MLA, to get anticipatory bail.
The judge had received a call on Monday morning with the caller identifying himself as Petlad MLA Niranjan Patel.Justice Trivedi received messages from the same mobile number asking her not to grant bail to one Vijay Shah, whose case was listed in her court on that day. The furious judge ordered an inquiry and Anand police traced the call to Alpesh Patel, a mechanical engineer.
Patel was produced before the court through video conferencing and he told the court it was petitioner Vijay Shah and his wife Vignatriben, who tasked him to call the judge in the name of Congress MLA Niranjan Patel and offered him money to make the call. The court found his disclosure “startling and shocking” and recorded in its order, “He was told by Vijaybhai that if he made such a call and sent messages in the name of Niranjanbhai Patel, MLA, who was on the opposite side, he i.e. Vijaybhai would be granted anticipatory bail by the court.”
Patel described how he was roped in by the petitioner and his wife through common friends and a meeting took place on June 16. After the HC ordered inquiry, he tried to escape but was nabbed by Gandhinagar police and handed over to Anand police.
The high court has ordered Patel to file an affidavit and asked police to forward it to the high court so that action can be taken against those who were involved in this act.
During the inquiry, the MLA told the cops that he was not the caller. He also said that Shah and his wife have family relations with him and they had helped him win the election. There was no point in pressurizing police to arrest him because he is a Congress party worker. However, Shah’s advocates had told the HC that he had no connection with the MLA who wanted Shah to be arrested. The cops traced the caller on basis of CCTV footage which showed him visiting a mobile shop owned by one Tofik Vohra, from whose mobile phone the call was made and messages were sent.