Gujarat: Temple priest sentenced for life in fake notes case

A temple priest from Sayla town in Surendranagar district was sent to life imprisonment by a sessions court, which held him guilty of printing fake currency notes. Additional sessions judge BH Somani punished the priest, Shailesh Raval, under Section 489 and 120B of the IPC for counterfeiting Rs 1,000 currency notes.

As per the case details, the Gujarat anti-terrorist squad (ATS) raided the premises of Lakshminarayan temple in Sayla on September 29, 2015, on a tip-off and nabbed Raval. He was found with 102 fake notes along with a printer and used to print fake currency notes in the basement of the temple.

The probe agency filed a charge sheet against the priest and showed two persons Maganbhai Gopabhai from Chhasiya and Vikramsinh Vakhubhai from Muli as absconders. The duo is yet to be arrested in the case. They were supposed to take delivery of the fake currency notes from the priest. However, they never got caught. As the co-accused could not be arrested, the prosecution insisted on going ahead with criminal proceedings against the priest.

Thereafter, he was put on a trial at the Mirzapur court. Public prosecutor RP Thaker examined 17 witnesses and supplied 16 documentary evidence to the court during the trial to seal the fate of the priest.