Police arrest BJP MLA, 25 others for gambling and drinking at a holiday resort near Vadodara

The police raided a holiday resort near Vadodara on Thursday and arrested BJP’s Matar MLA Kesarisinh Solanki and 25 others, including 8 women, on the charges of gambling and drinking liquor. The police recovered cash and eight bottles of liquor from a room of the resort where they were partying.

Acting on a tipoff that a gambling and drinking party was on at Jimira Holiday Resort on Shivrajpur Talavadi road, the crime branch raided the place and found over dozen persons, including Solanki gambling and drinking liquor. Among the arrested women, four are of Nepali origin, who are being questioned by the police.

According to the Panchmahal district superintendent of police, a substantial amount of cash was recovered from the room where the accused were gambling and drinking. The exact amount of cash recovered was not disclosed.

Incidentally, this is not the first time that Kesarisinh Solanki has courted controversy. He had picked up a fight with a deputy superintendent of police in 2015 over the arrest of some criminals. Justice Pardiwala of Gujarat High Court had passed strictures against him.

In 2019, Solanki had thrashed the sarpanch of Laval village following which the latter had filed a case against the MLA.

Recently, an audio clip had gone viral on social media in which a bootlegger was heard daring the police to take action against a gambling den saying he enjoyed the support of the MLA.

Another video too had gone viral on social media in which the MLA was seen threatening the district police chief over the issue of police imposing fines on people for not wearing masks.