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Modi minister gets 3 years in jail for illegal mining

Rajkot, June 15
A senior minister in the Narendra Modi government was today sentenced to three years imprisonment by a court in Porbandar in the Rs 54-crore illegal limestone mining case of 2006.

Gujarat Water Resources Minister Babu Bokhiria was convicted by Chief Judicial Magistrate CV Pandya. Bokhiria, along with former Congress MP Bharat Odedara, alleged gangster Bhima Dula Odedara, who is behind the bars in a murder case, and his son Lakshman Dula Odedara, who is chairman of Porbandar Marketing Yard, were sentenced to three years imprisonment and fined Rs 5,000 each.

In 2006, the manager of Saurashtra Chemical Company, Umesh Bhavsar, had registered a complaint against the four alleging that they had illegally mined limestone from the land where the company holds mining rights.

The complaint also mentioned that they had to face a loss of Rs 54 crore due to the illegal mining done by the four persons. Porbandar is around 180 km from here.

The Porbandar Police had arrested Bokhiria in 2007 from the city airport as after the complaint, he left the country and was declared as an absconder. However, the high court had later released him on bail.

In the last state assembly elections held in December 2012, Bokhiria had defeated state Congress president Arjun Modhwadia. Bokhiria was made Cabinet minister in the Modi government which took over the reins on December 25 last year. — PTI

The case file

• In 2006, Umesh Bhavsar, the manager of Saurashtra Chemical Company, had registered a complaint against Gujarat Water Resources Minister Babu Bokhiria (pic) and three others alleging illegal mining
• The complaint said they had illegally mined limestone from the land where the company holds mining rights, resulting in a loss of ~54 crore
• The Porbandar Police had arrested Bokhiria in 2007 from the city airport, but the high court released him on bail.