Overview

• The special court in Ahmedabad convicted 14 of 15 defendants of conspiracy, kidnapping for ransom, illegal detention, assault, and corruption offenses.
• Those sentenced include former Amreli superintendent Jagdish Patel, ex-BJP legislator Nalin Kotadiya, and multiple Amreli district police officers.
• Businessman Shailesh Bhatt was abducted on February 11, 2018, taken to a farmhouse near Gandhinagar, and coerced over demands for 176 BTC and ₹32 crore, with a forced sale of 34 BTC for about ₹1.32 crore.
• The court imposed fines and ordered gold worth roughly ₹2.4 crore seized from Patel to be transferred to Mumbai’s Master of Mint.
• The prosecution relied on 172–173 witnesses and digital forensics, with the judge issuing perjury notices to 25 witnesses after many turned hostile, while Bhatt separately faces ED charges from an August 2024 arrest.