In a significant legal development, the Gujarat High Court has suspended the life imprisonment sentence handed to former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Nalin Kotadiya. The court also granted him bail in a high-profile 2018 case involving the alleged kidnapping of a Surat-based businessman for the purpose of extorting cryptocurrency.
Court Grants Bail, Suspends Life Sentence
The decision came on Wednesday from a bench comprising Justice I J Vora and Justice R T Vachhani. The bench ordered Kotadiya's release upon executing a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and a surety of the same amount. The former MLA from Amreli had been sentenced to life in prison on August 29, 2025, by a special anti-corruption court, alongside 13 other convicts.
Kotadiya had approached the High Court in October 2025 challenging his conviction. His legal team, advocates Bhadrish Raju and Munjaal Bhatt, successfully argued for the suspension of his sentence. They contended that a swift hearing of his main appeal was unlikely due to the large number of witnesses involved in the case. The lawyers also emphasized his clean past record and lack of any previous convictions.
The bench, while refraining from extensive comments on the case's merits, found considerable merit in these submissions. The court noted, "We find considerable force in the submissions made by the learned counsel appearing for the applicant herein, and when there are no chances of early hearing of the appeals and in the absence of any past antecedents and previous conviction, a case is made out for exercising judicial discretion."
The 2018 Kidnapping and Crypto Extortion Plot
The case dates back to February 11, 2018, when Surat businessman Shailesh Bhatt was allegedly abducted and illegally confined at a location known as Keshav Farm near Gandhinagar. The kidnappers were identified as police officials from Amreli district.
Investigators laid out a complex conspiracy, alleging that Nalin Kotadiya, along with the then Amreli Superintendent of Police, Jagdish Patel, masterminded the plot. The motive was to extort cryptocurrency from Bhatt after learning he had acquired a significant amount of Bitcoins from an individual named Dhaval Mavani. This acquisition was linked to an investment in a Surat-based firm that had suddenly shut down.
Bhatt was released after he agreed to transfer a massive sum to his captors: 176 Bitcoins and Rs 32 crore in cash. When this transfer did not materialize, the accused allegedly forced him to sell 34 Bitcoins, extorting Rs 1.32 crore from the proceeds. The convicted group includes former SP Jagdish Patel and ten other police officials, highlighting a serious case of alleged corruption within the law enforcement machinery.
Implications and Next Steps
The High Court's order to suspend the sentence and grant bail is an interim relief and does not equate to an acquittal. The legal battle is far from over, with the substantive appeal against the life sentence still pending for a full hearing. The court's decision primarily hinges on procedural delays and Kotadiya's personal antecedents, rather than a judgment on the evidence.
This case remains one of Gujarat's most sensational criminal trials, intricately linking politics, policing, and the emerging, often murky, world of cryptocurrency transactions. The outcome of the final appeal will be closely watched, setting potential precedents for how the judiciary handles crimes involving digital assets and abuse of power.
