Hardik Patel’s key aide accused of fraud

Punabhai Talaviya, a resident of Kachardi village in Lathi taluka of Amreli and owner of Murlidhar Ginning factory, gave an application to Damnagar police station alleging that Bambhaniya owed him Rs 52 lakh but was not paying up. He further alleged that Bambhaniya also defrauded him after committing to sell him a piece of land.

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Bambhaniya is a native of Kamlapur village in Jasdan taluka of Rajkot district. The 36-year-old member of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) is nephew of former independent MLA from Jasdan, Bhikhabhai Bambhaniya and is married to BJP leader and former minister Savjibhai Korat’s brother’s daughter. Till a few years ago, he used to run a cotton ginning and pressing business and had stakes in factories in Jasdan and Jetpur towns.

Talaviya has alleged that he had sold Bambhaniya cotton bales worth Rs 1.2 crore in 2012. Bambhaniya had made partial payment to him but did not pay the remaining amount later on. “He committed the remaining payment and as an assurance, he also gave me a sworn affidavit stating that he would sell around 40 bighas of land he claimed to own near Jasdan if he failed to pay. But later on, he sold the same piece of land to some other person from Talaja in Bhavnagar,” Talaviya told The Indian Express over phone.