Justice Served Right: Indian Origin Woman Wins Big Over A 23 Year Old Divorce Battle

By Gopal Tripathi

AN ONGOING DIVORCE BATTLE found its closing chapter when the court handed Varsha Gohil, an Indian origin woman who has been living in the UK for over 20 years, a clean win over her husband. Varsha was handed over 6.6 million pounds (around 85 crore INR), which seems like a huge deal for Varsha, but there’s more to this story. Back in 2002, when the case began, Varsha filed for divorce from her husband, Bhadresh, over an infidelity suspicion sensed by Varsha. We have seen a lot of cases that revolve around infidelity or such allegations, and at the time, Varsha received around 270,000 pounds (around 3.5 crore INR) and also kept the Peugeot car inherited by the family. But Varsha never settled for it.

And so the things got out of hand for Bhadresh Gohil. Varsha believed that Bhadresh was hiding a reasonable amount of fortune from her. So in 2007, Varsha knocked on the doors of the court again with a hefty amount of evidence against Bhadresh.

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It gets worse for Bhadresh after that, when in 2011 he gets convicted for money laundering and forgery. Everything went in Varsha’s favor; Bhadresh was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment. Assets were dug into, and the findings resulted in Bhadresh’s deception coming to the surface in the public; millions of pounds were disclosed, and also 28 million pounds (around 360.06 crore INR) in his assets were completely exposed by Bhadresh. This arising tension built up to become a dispute rather than a legal battle; this feud reached its boiling point and ultimately landed in the UK’s top court. That means Varsha will be battling in the Supreme Court over her marital dispute with her husband, Bhadresh.

During the pursuit of Bhadresh’s hidden assets, the High Court hearing was delayed until 2023. The respondent countered that Bhadresh claims that the assets were not his, and so they cannot be a part of any divorce settlement. The petitioner hit back, saying that the frozen assets were owned by Bhadresh during their marriage and shall be acknowledged by the court amidst the division of the couple’s assets. But CPS states that Bhadresh’s fortunes must be questioned during the criminal proceedings for recovery and therefore cannot be a subject of this divorce battle.

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But the justice had its own words, where CPS and Bhadresh’s claims lacked the sufficient amount of evidence; the judge, Justice Williams, ruled that the assets worth 28 million pounds (around 360.06 crore INR) belonged to Bhadresh and did not originate from the proceedings of crime. Assets belonged to legitimate businesses and existed during their marriage. The judge pointed out these claims and handed Varsha 6.6 million pounds (around 85 crore INR) in assets. Justice Williams slammed Bhadresh. The court ruled in favour of Varsha, and this settlement brought a full stop to what was being called one of the longest-running British divorce disputes. The UK Court of Appeal also ruled that there won’t be any appeals in the case, and the case is over for good at last.  

[VP]

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