Jamnagar: The special court has issued a show-cause notice to a notorious land mafia Jayesh Patel, his wife and their lawyer in a GUJCTOC case where the names of witnesses were revealed to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax Department in contravention of the court’s orders in 2020 to keep the names secret.

As per details of the case, the police have registered an offence against land-mafia Jayesh Patel and his accomplices under the GUJCTOC Act in 2020. After an assurance that the names of the witnesses would be kept a secret, they have provided information about extortion to the tune of crores of rupees to the investigating officers. To ensure that the identity of these witnesses is not made public, the investigating officer filed an application before the GUJCTOC Court in Rajkot. Following this application, the court strictly prohibited from revealing publicly the names of these witnesses.

However, in this duration, the public prosecutor S K Vora filed an application before the court informing that Jayesh Patel’s wife had disclosed the names of the witnesses to the ED and IT department and that this has been revealed to a newspaper through their lawyer. The case is currently at the stage of filing of charge-sheets and proper legal procedure needs to be put in place otherwise none of the witnesses will be able to testify fearlessly in the court and give their statements. The public prosecutor has sought contempt of court proceedings against the accused.

Therefore, a special GUJCTOC Court has based on the application of the public prosecutor, SK Vora, and taking its earlier order for secrecy in to cognizance, has issued a show-cause notice as to why contempt of court proceedings should not be initiated against the land-mafia’s wife and their lawyer.

DeshGujarat