Lawyer husband’s deceit and 20 years of struggle: Indian-origin Varsha Gohil gets Britain’s most historic divorce settlement

One of the longest running divorce cases in UK court history has finally reached its logical conclusion. Varsha Gohil, 61, of Indian origin, living in London, has received a settlement of 66.6 lakh pounds (ie about Rs 75 crore) after a legal battle that lasted for more than two decades. This family dispute, which started in May 2002, has now come to an end after going through many shocking criminal turns.

Why did this legal battle drag on for 20 years?

Varsha Gohil had filed an application in the court in 2002 for separation from her husband Bhadresh Gohil. Bhadresh himself was an influential lawyer by profession. Initially Varsha had agreed to a small settlement and a mutual understanding was reached between the two. But after some time, Varsha realized that she had been cheated a lot, after which she challenged this settlement in the court.

• Serious charge of hiding property: Varsha’s direct claim was that during the divorce process, Bhadresh had hidden information about his real financial condition and many properties from the court. According to British law, in divorce cases it is mandatory for both the parties to give transparent details of their entire movable and immovable property.

• Use of legal tricks: Since the husband himself was from a legal background, this case was delayed for years on the basis of technical details.

Money laundering and jail sentence: When the case took a new turn

This simple domestic divorce case turned into a major international criminal controversy when Bhadresh Gohil’s name got linked to a major government investigation into money laundering and corruption. Bhadresh was convicted of laundering illegal money worth crores of pounds in collaboration with one of his Nigerian clients.

10 years jail and action by British government

In 2010, the British court found Bhadresh Gohil guilty of corruption and money laundering and sentenced him to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. Soon after, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) started the process of confiscating Bhadresh’s assets worth about 28 million pounds (about Rs 315 crore), as this money was earned entirely from criminal activities.

This seizure further complicated Varsha’s case. Varsha claimed that a part of this entire property was completely legitimate and was earned during the marriage, on which only she was legally entitled.

The complete math of property: Total value vs Rainfall’s share

The British court analyzed in depth how much of Bhadresh’s total salable assets constituted actual and legitimate marital property. The final figures that came before the court were as follows:

The final decision of the Court of Appeal and the emotional comment of the judge

Britain’s ‘Court of Appeal’ has given its final seal on this case which has been in the rounds of the courts for a long time, due to which the possibilities of all further appeals in this case have been completely eliminated. With this, the way was cleared for exact implementation of the order given by the High Court.

While pronouncing the verdict, Judge Williams made very sharp and strong remarks on the manipulative and non-cooperative attitude of Bhadresh Gohil. On the contrary, the court highly praised the courage and fighting ability of Varsha Gohil.

The judge specifically mentioned in his order that Varsha has been facing serious health issues for the last 23 years and is now very close to her retirement. Despite this, she fought without fear for the right to her legitimate marital property for two decades amidst the confiscation action of the world’s largest investigative agencies and the British Government. With this historic victory, the longest family dispute in British legal history has been put to rest forever.