Updated on Feb 1, at 1.13 p.m.

In the extortion case against Gujarat’s police officers, absconder Taral Bhatt has applied for anticipatory bail at the Junagadh sessions court.

He has pledged himself innocent and has argued that a conspiracy is being carried out against him.

The court has also ordered the investigating officers in the anti-terrorist squad (ATS) to be present in the hearing of this case today.

Updated on Jan 31, at 1.20 p.m.

Top officials of Gujarat police, including the State Monitoring Cell (SMC) and CID (crime), along with probing agencies in other states, were informed by the director general of police (DGP), Vikas Sahay, to deploy their intelligence networks for the details and perpetrators in case of Gujarat policemen extorting money.

On top of that, suspended assistant sub-inspector (ASI), Deepak Jani, one of the three key accused in this case, is reportedly likely to be apprehended soon.

His interrogation could reveal several details of the activities carried out at the Junagadh SOG office under Jani and AM Gohil.

Updated on Jan 30, at 1.47 p.m.

Complainant Kartik Bhandari was asked to visit the Junagadh cybercrime cell in person to unfreeze his frozen bank account and was then demanded a sum of ₹20 lakh over this by the police officers Deepak Jani and AM Gohil.

Taral Bhatt, the prime accused in this case, provided them with Bhandari’s and others’ bank details.

Bhatt is also accused of having reportedly extorted a similar amount from two people in Ahmedabad a year ago.

Bhatt is accused of having initiated these activities since he busted a betting scam in Ahmedabad. He reportedly seized around 500 bank accounts, from which he landed on the two accounts where he extorted money.

He reportedly saved the bank details on a pen drive and kept them with him, which he later used for his illicit activities.

A probe related to Ahmedabad’s Madhupura betting scam case has been carried out by the state monitoring cell (SMC), which has submitted a confidential report to the director general of police (DGP).

The report could connect the majority of the dots in this case, as the betting scam case is suspected to be the platform behind the extortion case of Taral Bhatt.

ATS conducts searches, interrogations

Gujarat’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has begun an investigation into this case and conducted searches on Jan 29 at the offices of Taral Bhatt (Manavadar) and suspended officer AM Gohil (Junagadh). Bhatt’s Ahmedabad residence was also searched.

Bhatt reportedly destroyed some documents, which are suspected to be associated with this case.

The CCTV footage in Gohil’s office could reveal significant aspects of this case.

Initial examination of the footage revealed that Bhatt frequently visited Gohil’s office.

The duo conversed through WhatsApp and only initiated the chat after exchanging an encrypted code for verification.

The ATS deputy superintendent of police (DySP), SL Chaudhari, also registered the statement of Bhandari in this case, who was also noticed in the CCTV footage to have visited the cyber cell.

Chaudhari also collected the WhatsApp chats and evidence about this case from Bhandari.

Further, AM Gohil’s staff will be interrogated in this case.

Updated on Jan 29, at 1.45 p.m.

A special team, under the supervision of the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) deputy inspector general (DIG), Deepan Bhadran, including the superintendent of police (SP), a deputy superintendent of police (DSP), and a police inspector (PI), has launched a probe into the case of Gujarat’s top cops extorting money by freezing bank accounts.

Possibilities are also explored of Bhatt having spread out his networks beyond the limits of Junagadh in this case.

As per reliable sources in the police department, Bhatt allegedly kept a share of 50% of the extorted amounts with him in this case. This money was reportedly laundered through his informants, based in Ahmedabad.

The police complaint was registered against Manavadar circle PI Taral Bhatt on Jan 26. However, Bhatt was present at the Republic Day celebrations organised by the Junagadh authorities.

He was present at the celebrations despite his other two operatives, PI AM Gohil and ASI Deepak Jani, already being suspended.

Upon learning that he was no longer immune to the police probe in this case, he reportedly absconded to a foreign country.

As per reliable police sources, Bhatt had established good connections with Dubai-based bookies after the Madhupura betting raids, thus indicating a strong possibility of him absconding to Dubai.

The State Monitoring Cell (SMC), presiding over the probe against Bhatt in the Madhupura betting raids scam, is also reportedly set to register a case against him in the anti-corruption bureau (ACB).

Alongside, most of the 335 bank accounts availed by Bhatt were reportedly connected with the Madhupura betting scam, which was previously presided over by him as the prevention of crime branch (PCB) PI.

Bhatt had seized several documents in that case, which also included a total of 460 bank accounts.

He is even accused of keeping a copy of the documents related to the case before handing them over to the SMC.

He reportedly operated over somewhere around 1,000 bank accounts to run the extortion nexus.

Updated on Jan 28, at 12.11 p.m.

The baton-holders of law enforcement in Gujarat turned into lawbreakers themselves in a case of fetching hefty sums over unfreezing the illicitly frozen bank accounts.

Manavadar circle police inspector (PI) Taral Bhatt has been accused of collecting bank details from throughout the country and passing them on to special operations group (SOG)-cum-cyber crime cell PI AM Gohil. Gohil then went on to demand a share of the money from the frozen bank accounts.

Police officers turn perpetrators

The illicit practice was revealed when, on Nov 17, 2023, a man from Kerala’s Kasaragod named Kartik Bhandari tried to operate his HDFC bank account but failed. Upon inquiring at the bank, it was revealed that the account was frozen by the Junagadh cybercrime cell.

Taking this up with the bank’s central department, Bhandari learned that the cybercrime cell had frozen 30 such accounts. Upon reaching out, Bhandari was told to visit the Junagadh cybercrime cell personally.

Bhandari came to Junagadh from Bangalore on Jan 14 with his relative, visited the office as per their direction, and was interrogated by assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Deepak Jani.

Jani informed Bhandari that his account has been frozen over transactions worth crores, and the matter will have to be taken up with the enforcement directorate (ED).

However, to evade the legal action, Jani demanded a percentage of the share in the amount on the frozen account.

Upon being offered ₹3 - ₹4 lakh, Jani refused the offer, stating that this was a negligible amount and “We have to distribute this money among many top-level officers. Each one of us gets ₹50,000. This money wouldn’t suffice.”

Jani had reportedly said, “We took to the tune of ₹20 lakh in several cases in the past. We want ₹25 lakh in this case. The Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar cybercrime head office itself takes 80% of the bank balance to unfreeze the frozen accounts.”

Jani suggested Bhandari and his relative wait for PI AM Gohil to arrive in the evening. Upon Gohil’s arrival, he directed Bhandari to comply with Jani’s demands; otherwise, legal action would be initiated.

Bhandari, upon returning to Bangalore, took this issue up with the inspector general (IG), and the case was then revealed.

A trade between the trio

The nexus also includes Manavadar circle PI Taral Bhatt, who is regarded as the mastermind of this case.

Several allegations were made against Bhatt for illegally freezing accounts and then demanding huge sums to unfreeze them in a cricket betting scam raid conducted at Ahmedabad in March last year.

This case was transferred to the state monitoring cell (SMC) over the complaints, but because of Bhatt’s connections with top officials, he evaded inquiry and was transferred to Junagadh district.

During his time as Manavadar circle PI, Bhatt involved Gohil in this case and provided him with bank accounts to freeze, allowing him to fetch hefty sums out of them illicitly.

It has been alleged that Bhatt might’ve involved several other officers as well in this nexus.

Regarded as an “expert” in IT-related cases, Bhatt has also been accused of misusing his expertise, going up to the level of being involved with hackers and international scamsters.

Illegal police nexus busted in Junagadh

Upon the revelations, this case was handed over to the anti-terrorist squad (ATS) by the director general of police (DGP) after meeting with the Junagadh range IG Nilesh Jajadiya on Jan 26.

The DGP had an idea of Bhatt’s illicit activities, and it was decided to transfer this case to the ATS upon learning of the case’s nationwide connection. However, IG Jajadiya claims the network in this case could reach overseas as well.

The ATS, headed by the superintendent of police (SP), launched a probe on Jan 26 itself and availed of the documents related to the case. The bank details of the accounts frozen by PI Bhatt and Gohil have been collected.

A task of freezing a total of 335 bank accounts was given by Bhatt to Gohil. The authorities are also proving those account holders.

Upon the complaint made by Bhandari in Bangalore, a case was registered against the trio at Junagadh B division police station under sections 167, 465, 467, 471, 385, 389, 114, and 120b of the IPC, alongside sections 7, 12 under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Ahmedabad’s Madhupura cricket betting scam

On Mar 25, last year, the then prevention of crime branch (PCB) PI Taral Bhatt busted a cricket betting scam in Ahmedabad’s Madhupura.

Six chargesheets have been filed in this case till now, while a total of 20 people have been named in the complaint filed.

A total of 27 people were held in this case, including Jitendra Hiragar, Satish Parihar, Ankit Gehlot, and Nirav Patel, who were apprehended from the Madhupura betting gang’s office.

Alongside, 538 debit cards, 536 cheque books, 193 SIM cards, four swiping machines, mobile phones, and three laptops were seized.

Interrogation of Jitendra revealed that an individual named Harshil Jain owned the office space and also ran the cricket betting nexus.

A huge network of dummy accounts and dummy SIM cards was revealed.

The gang was operational on several online betting sites through online banking, and they connected the bookies by collaborating with the site owners.

Harshil earned 3.5% commission over transactions worth ₹1 lakh on the betting sites.

Enormous amounts were transferred by using a Velocity server.

A link to total transactions worth ₹1,200 cr was also unravelled.

This number, however, has catapulted up to ₹2,300 cr in the span of 10 months of the investigation in this case.

A red corner notice was issued against the three absconding prime accused, Harshil, Deepak Thakkar, and Amit Majethia, for fleeing to Dubai or other countries.

The arrest of either of them could unravel a massive money laundering link leading to Dubai. This would be a key revelation in the links between the police extortion case and these bookies.

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