Minister sends legal notice to recruitment scam accused

Gujarat Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama today sent a legal notice to the prime accused in a recruitment scam, who has alleged he was involved in the scandal, asking him to withdraw his charges or face defamation suit.
Kalyansinh Champavat, the prime accused, had last month claimed Chudasama was involved in alleged irregularities in recruitment of talathis (revenue officials), a charge refuted by the senior BJP Minister.
The notice was served by Chudasama through his lawyer H L Jani as 10-day deadline, given to Champavat on July 1 to withdrew his allegations, had lapsed.
Through the notice, Champavat has been asked to withdrew his allegations within 30 days or face legal action under IPC Sections 120-b (criminal conspiracy) and 499 (defamation), stated an official release.

Jani alleged Champavat and his unknown associates deliberately hatched a conspiracy to malign the image of the minister by making baseless allegations, which is a crime under IPC sections 120-b and 499.
He said Chudasama had earlier asked Champavat to withdrew his allegations in 10 days, but the latter neither withdrew them nor provided any proofs to back his claim.

The recruitment scam took place in February 2014. Champavat, who runs a coaching institute, was arrested by police in February 2014 for allegedly taking money from probable candidates by promising them job as talathis.
He was released on bail after spending 130 days in jail.

On June 29, Champavat had called a press conference and alleged he had been falsely implicated in the scam by Chudasama. He had also claimed the BJP leader was involved in the scam.
At that time, Chudasama had said Champavat was levelling baseless allegations to save his own skin. The minister had also threatened to file a defamation suit if Champavat did not withdraw the allegations.