Ex-Amul chairperson Vipul Chaudhary arrested in Rs 14.8 crore embezzlement case

Ahmedabad: Vipul Chaudhary, former chairman of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) has been arrested for his alleged role in a Rs 14.8 crore embezzlement case involving bonus of employees of a Mehsana-based dairy entity to which he was connected, police said on Sunday. Chaudhary was arrested on Saturday from Gandhinagar for allegedly embezzling Rs 14.8 crore that was meant to give bonus to employees of Dudhasagar Dairy cooperative in Mehsana, of which he was a former chairman, a state CID (Criminal Investigation Department) official said. An FIR was lodged against Chaudhary and others, including Dudhsagar chairperson Ashaben Thakor, vice-chairman Modhjibhai Patel and managing director NJ Bakshi, in CID Crime police station in Gandhinagar, the CID said in a release. They were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Prevention of Corruption Act for breach of trust and criminal conspiracy among other offences, it added. Chaudhary was in the past sacked as chairman of GCMMF and Dudhsagar Dairy over an alleged scam in which cattle feed was provided free of cost to the Maharashtra government, thereby causing a loss of Rs 22.5 crore. A tribunal court had, in 2018, directed Chaudhary to deposit 40 percent of Rs 22.5 crore, or over Rs 9 crore, with Dudhsagar Dairy by October, 2019. To accumulate this amount, Chaudhary and other accused allegedly hatched a conspiracy and misused their financial authority to involve 30 officials to siphon off Rs 14.8 crore earmarked as bonus for 1,932 staffers of Dudhsagar, the CID alleged.