AAP MLA Chaitar Vasava sentenced to seven years in assault, extortion case involving forest officials

Gandhinagar: In what may be viewed as a major setback for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Gujarat, one of its strongest tribal leaders and Dediapada MLA, Chaitar Vasava, was sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment by a Rajpipla Sessions Court in a three-year-old case of assault and extortion of forest officials. Eight others, including his wife Shakuntala Vasava, were also convicted and awarded the same sentence.

The court additionally imposed a fine of ₹25,000 on each of the nine convicts. The case involves a dispute that erupted in Dediapada on October 30, 2023, after forest officials cleared land that local residents had been cultivating. Vasava allegedly summoned the officials for a meeting to resolve the issue.

During the meeting, the officials were assaulted, and Vasava is accused of firing from an unlicensed pistol to intimidate them.


For the records, a dispute between the locals and forest officials had erupted in Dediapada on October 30, 2023, when the officials had cleared some forest land that was cultivated by the locals. Vasava had summoned the officials to resolve the issue where the officials were assaulted and Vasava had even allegedly fired from an unlicensed Pistol to scare them.