Ahmedabad: A sessions court here on Wednesday denied regular bail to Popular Builders owner Dashrath Patel (68) in two cases of alleged land grabbing in Godhavi and Chekhla villages.In connection with the land case in Chekhla, Dashrath’s elder brother, Raman Patel, has been sentenced to four years’ imprisonment.Both the brothers along with others were charged with forgery, cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy for grabbing land parcels.The sale deed by which the land parcel was taken into possession by the builders in Godhavi was executed in 1983, while the Chekhla one was executed in 1996. The FIRs were registered with Sanand police station.Dashrath’s lawyer contended that the disputes relate to execution of registered sale deeds are essentially civil in nature, but have been converted into criminal prosecution by abuse of power. There were seven other cases filed against him by the police in a similar manner, and he was falsely dubbed as a habitual offender.The prosecution objected to the bail pleas and asserted that the Patel brothers had wrongfully got possession of the land parcels. It also accused the Patel brothers of winning over the witnesses in other cases.After the hearing, principal district judge K M Sojitra rejected the bail pleas and noted in different orders, “The conduct of the applicant/accused coupled with the fact that his attempt to win over witnesses has been noted in the judicial orders passed by hon’ble higher courts as noted hereinabove, disentitles the applicant for any discretionary relief.”The Patel brothers were CBI witnesses in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter cases.
