How a video by a woman in Israel, alleging abduction of her family, led to arrest of woman from 'Godmother' Santokben's clan in Porbandar

Earlier this month, a video uploaded on social media by a Porbandar woman, presently living in Israel, caught the attention of the Gujarat Police.

- GNS News Agency, May 6

In the video, the woman, Leelu Kuchhadiya, claimed that her father Bhana Odedara, husband Bhanu, and teenaged son Ranjit had been held hostage by Hiralba Jadeja - a member of the powerful political clan of Kutiyana in Porbandar. On April 30, though, Bhana approached the police again and made a shocking allegation: All the claims made by Leelu in the video were true. He alleged that he, along with his son-in-law and another family member, and later his grandson Ranjit, was picked up from his home and taken to Hiralba’s house where they were kept for over two weeks. The 65-year-old man further alleged that they were asked to return the money that Leelu had allegedly borrowed from Hiralba and made to sign several blank cheques. Hiralba was arrested on charges of abduction, extortion and criminal intimidation, among other sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Hiralba is the widow of Bhura Munja Jadeja, the former one-time MLA of the Ranavav-Kutiyana assembly constituency of Porbandar in 1995, which, after delimitation in the late 1990s, became Kutiyana constituency. She is also related to current Kutiyana MLA Kandhal Jadeja, the son of her brother-in-law, gangster Sarman Munja Jadeja, and his wife Santokben who was p