Varsha Gohil and Bhadresh Gohil
A 23-year divorce battle between an Indian-origin couple in the UK has ended with the court awarding Varsha Gohil £6.6 million after years of litigation over a hidden fortune of £28 million.The dispute began in 2002 when Varsha Gohil filed for divorce from her husband Bhadresh Gohil, citing adultery and unreasonable behaviour. At the time, she accepted a £270,000 settlement with the family’s Peugeot car, The Sun reported.Varsha later became convinced that her ex-husband had not disclosed his entire wealth during the divorce proceedings. Under UK law, both parties must provide a full account of their assets and income when deciding on a financial settlement.In 2007, she returned to court seeking to overturn the original agreement after gathering evidence that she believed showed Padrich had hidden part of his wealth.The case took a dramatic turn in 2011 when Bhadresh was convicted of money laundering and fraud. The former lawyer was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while prosecutors froze assets worth around £28 million that investigators said were hidden around the world.
The legal battle then turned into a dispute over whether those assets should be treated as part of the couple’s marital wealth.Varsha’s challenge eventually reached the UK Supreme Court. There, the justices considered her case alongside that of Allison Charland, who raised similar allegations that her ex-husband hid his assets during divorce proceedings. The ruling allowed both women to reopen their financial settlements and pursue new claims.Despite this victory, the financial dispute remained unresolved for years. Difficulties faced by prosecutors in tracing and recovering the assets meant that a new High Court hearing would not be held until 2023.At that hearing, Badrich said that the frozen wealth did not belong to him and therefore could not be included in any divorce decision. Varsha emphasized that the wealth had been accumulated during their marriage and should be taken into consideration when dividing the couple’s assets.The Crown Prosecution Service said the money represented the proceeds of crime and should remain subject to criminal recovery proceedings rather than being distributed through the family courts.However, Judge Williams ruled that prosecutors had failed to prove that the entire £28 million came from criminal activity. He found that some of the assets came from legitimate businesses that existed during the marriage and thus formed part of the couple’s wealth.The judge awarded Varsha £6.6 million and issued a scathing assessment of her ex-husband, describing him as “grossly dishonest”.In his ruling, Judge Williams said Padraich’s portrayal of himself as a hard-working family man who had been treated unfairly was “so far from the truth that it is difficult to understand how he could bring that up”.The decision ends one of the longest divorce disputes in Britain, and ends a legal battle that lasted more than two decades.
