Gujarat’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Yuvrajsinh Jadeja was arrested on 21st April 2023 as he was accused of extorting 1 crore rupees for not taking names in a scam. A case has been registered against them at Bhavnagar police station.
“Yuvrajsinh Jadeja’s arrest was made at 11 pm on Friday. The other five accused in the new case are yet to be arrested,” an official from the Bhavnagar Local Crime Branch (LCB) said.
Yuvraj Singh Jadeja is known as a ‘whistle-blower’, as he has been exposing irregularities in competitive entrance and recruitment exams. But now it has been revealed that he was using his knowledge about such irregularities to extort money. He is accused of extorting money from those involved in a dummy exam candidate scam by not revealing their names when he exposed the scam. According to police, the AAP leader and his associates collected over ₹1 crore from two persons named Pradip Baraiya and Prakash Dave.
Bhavnagar police gave information about this matter by holding a press conference. A case has been registered against Yuvrajsinh Jadeja and others under sections 386, 388 and 120(B) of the IPC at the Nilambagh police station for allegedly siphoning off Rs 1 crore from Pradeep Baraiya and Prakash Dave. Apart from Yuvrajsinh Jadeja, a case has also been registered against his two brothers-in-law Shivubha and Kanbha as well as accused Bipin Trivedi and Ghanshyam Langhwa.
Police said that when Yuvrajsinh Jadeja was questioned about the allegations against him, he did not give a satisfactory answer and gave evasive answers. During interrogation, Yuvrajsinh Jadeja also gave some names, the police said, which will be investigated after verification. Yuvrajsinh Jadeja had made allegations against Jitu Vaghani and Asit Vora before questioning but the police said that Jadeja did not say any such thing during the interrogation.
The entire matter came to light after Bhavnagar Local Crime Branch arrested 4 people for their involvement in a racket of supplying dummy candidates for government recruitment examinations and board examinations. Reportedly, they were caught sending dummy candidates for the junior clerk recruitment exam held recently. The four arrested accused are Sharad Panot, Pradeep Baraiya, Prakash alias P K Dave and Baldev Rathod. They used to charge Rs 5 to Rs 10 lakh to send dummy candidates instead of the real candidates by forging documents. The dummy candidates are paid Rs 25,000 per exam.
During their interrogation, they alleged extortion by the AAP leader. As per the complaint, Yuvrajsinh Jadeja and his men made a video of a dummy candidate appearing for an exam on 25 March. However, instead of using the video to expose the scam, he showed the video to Prakash Dave’s wife. After this, a meeting was held on 28th March at Jadeja’s office, where his aides were also present.
Yuvrajsinh Jadeja demanded Rs 70 lakh and made a deal of Rs 45 lakh after bargaining for not taking names in the press conference revealing the dummy candidate scandal. After the deals were finalised, Yuvrajsinh showed the list of names to his aide Ghanasyam to confirm the names of Prakash Dave and his aides which are to be not revealed. Apart from Prakash, three other names Rajan Dave, Rakesh Baraiya and Parth Pandya were confirmed to be not revealed as per the deal.
After that on March 30, he had a meeting with Pradeep Baraiya, in which Yuvrajsinh Jadeja showed Pradeep a diary containing names of people involved in the scam, and told him that he would disclose these names in the press conference. Yuvrajsinh Jadeja then demanded Rs 60 lakh from him to not disclose his name, while Pradeep offered Rs 10 lakh. At the end of the conversation and bargaining, the deal was finalised for Rs 55 lakh. The amount was paid to the AAP leader’s aides in 3 instalments of Rs 20 lakh, Rs 30 lakh and Rs 5 lakh.
When Yuvrajsinh Jadeja held the press conference on 5 April to expose the dummy candidate scam, he did not take the names of those for whom he had collected payments.
A few days ago, Bipin Trivedi, a person close to Yuvrajsinh Jadeja, revealed in front of the media that the AAP leader had demanded lakhs of rupees for not disclosing the names in the dummy scandal. He also said that he had a meeting with Yuvrajsinh Jadeja about this. Bipin Trivedi alleged that Rs 55 lakh and Rs 45 lakh, respectively, were taken from Pradeep Baraiya and Prakash Dave for not naming them in the scam. He also said that there was a meeting between Ghanshyam, Pradeep, Shivubha, Kanbha and Yuvrajsinh Jadeja and a deal of Rs 55 lakh was made. In this, Ghanshyam was the middleman with Bipin, while Shivubha and Kanbha are said to be Yuvrajsinh Jadeja’s brother-in-law.
Recently, Yuvrajsinh Jadeja revealed in a press conference that dummy candidates are being made to appear in competitive examinations for government jobs. A police complaint was lodged in Bhavnagar recently. It is alleged that Yuvrajsinh Jadeja took money for not taking names in the scam. Following these allegations, the Bhavnagar Police detained Bipin Trivedi.
Yuvrajsinh Jadeja was also summoned and was asked to be present to respond to these allegations. However, the very next day after receiving the police summons, Yuvrajsinh Jadeja’s health ‘suddenly deteriorated’. Due to this, he sought more time to appear before the police. On the other hand, as Yuvrajsinh Jadeja was not present on the date mentioned in the summons, the police issued a fresh summon and ordered him to appear on April 21. He appeared on April 21.
In the FIR filed in the case, AAP leader Yuvrajsinh Jadeja, his brothers-in-law Shivubha and Kanbha, his aides Ghanshyam Ladhwa and Bipin Trivedi and another person named Raju has been charged with Extortion.