Supreme Court Fines Surat Officer in Contempt Case

Surat : The Supreme Court of India has declared Surat police officer RY Raval and the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate of Surat District and Sessions Court Deepaben Thakar guilty of contempt for remanding Surat builder Tushar Shah. While the Supreme Court bench of Justices BR Gavai and Sandeep Mehta accepted the additional chief judicial magistrate’s unconditional apologies, the police inspector was compelled to pay a Rs 25,000 penalty in the contempt case. 

Advocate Dipesh Dalal stated that when both appeared in the Supreme Court, Surat police inspector Rawal was fined Rs 25,000 and the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate was pardoned for her error. 

Senior attorneys K Parameshwar and Manish Singhvi, representing the police inspector and the additional chief judicial magistrate, asked with the court to consider deferring the sentence before passing it.

Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta urged the judge to overturn the judicial officer’s sentence, citing his impeccable service record. So the bench stated that they had considered the practice of filing remand petitions as well as Gujarat’s pristine service record. However, the bench took a humble approach and accepted her unconditional apology. The bench fined RY Rawal Rs.25,000. 

The situation worsened when the Vesu police violated the Supreme Court’s order against Tushar Rajinikanth Shah, an accused in a Rs 1.65 crore cheating charge brought by Thakorji Developers builder Abhishek Goswami. The case was ultimately heard by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court issued a contempt notice to the police personnel, including Magistrate Deepaben Thakar, a police constable, Vesu police inspector RY Rawal, the then-Police Commissioner Ajay Tomar, DCP Vijaysinh Gurjar, and others. However, the Supreme Court has cleared the police commissioner, DCP, constable, and Abhishek Goswami of all charges in this issue. On the other side, PI Rawal and the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate were found guilty and ordered to appear on September 2.

Abhishek Vinodkumar Goswami, a resident of Surya Palace on City Light Road, manages a building firm in the name of Thakurji Developers. Abhishek booked fifteen outlets through Sumit Goenka at Shrestha Group’s Solarium Business Center on Vesu VIP Road. Vinod Goswami and Sumit Goenka met with Shrestha Group Developers’ partners Bhavin Durhab Patel, Pradeep Tamakuwala, Vasant Patel, and Tushar Shah and reached an agreement for 1.65 crores. Apart from Sumit Goenka, Raju Singh and Omkar Singh were present during the transaction and preparation of the payment diary. 

Abhishek Goswami filed a complaint against Tushar Shah and Company, alleging that they failed to provide documents despite receiving full payment. Tushar Rajinikanth Shah of the Shrestha Group litigated the issue all the way to the Supreme Court. On December 8, 2023, the Supreme Court granted Tushar Shah conditional release. It is said that after receiving this bail, the Surat police detained the businessman, tortured him, and demanded money. A contempt of court petition was filed with the Supreme Court.