Fall of a co-operator: Vipul Chaudhary arrested

Vipul Chaudhary, whose writ once ran in Mehsana dairy and who even grabbed the top post of GCMMF Chairman in the past, was arrested on charge of embezzlement of bonus of co-op employees.

Chaudhary, who is known to be a free spender and who is accused of treating dairy co-op as his personal fiefdom, went on committing one mistake after another leading to this day in his life, say people who know him closely.

 Vipul has been arrested for his role in the Rs 14.8 crore embezzlement case involving bonus of employees of the Mehsana-based dairy. The State CID arrested him as well as Dudhsagar chairperson Ashaben Thakor, vice chairman Modhjibhai Patel and MD NJ Bakshi, among others.

Insiders blame Vipul’s political ambition coupled with his free-spending temperament as the villain of the piece in this case. Wavering between Congress and BJP, Vipul could never decide where to end.

Being a Congressman right from the beginning he switched camps to grab the post of GCMMF Chairmanship and he succeeded in this by joining BJP. But his style of functioning soon earned him more foes than friends at GCMMF.

It bears recall that Chaudhary was removed as the chairman of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation through a no-confidence motion by majority directors of the federation in 2013 for taking illegal decisions. His decisions included rolling back an increase in the price of some commodities and supply of seeds to Maharashtra.

His free spending also came to the fore when he headed Dudhsagar Dairy and out of love for Sharad Pawar sent cattle feed worth Rs 22 crore without charging a penny in return. It caused loss to the dairy and in March 2015, he was sacked as the chairman of Mehsana-based Dudhsagar dairy on the charge of alleged irregularities.

A tribunal court had, in 2018, directed Chaudhary to deposit 40 per cent of Rs 22.5 crore, or over Rs 9 crore, with Dudhsagar Dairy by October, 2019.

“To accumulate this amount, Chaudhary and other accused allegedly hatched a conspiracy and misused their financial authority to involve 30 officials to siphon off Rs 14.8 crore earmarked as bonus for 1,932 staffers of Dudhsagar”, PTI quotes CID.

Earlier, the State Registrar of Cooperative Societies disqualified him from contesting election to any cooperative society or from holding any post in such a society for a period of six years. The order was later revised by the apex court to four years debar.

It bears recall that though he may have been barred from contesting, his clout at Dudhsagar ensured that the panel led by him won thirteen out of sixteen seats of the dairy. Some of those who stood by him are now cursing their stars for seeing this day. A dreamy co-operator is more of a liability than an asset, they have learnt the hard way.