Indian-Origin Woman Wins Rs 85 Crore Settlement In 23-Year-Long Divorce Battle In UK

Last Updated:June 05, 2026, 07:23 IST

Varsha Gohil, now 61 and based in London, first filed for divorce from her husband, lawyer Bhadresh Gohil, in May 2002.

An Indian-origin woman at the centre of one of the longest-running divorce cases in UK legal history has secured a £6.6 million settlement, bringing to a close a legal saga that has lasted more than two decades.

Varsha Gohil, now 61 and based in London, first filed for divorce from her husband, lawyer Bhadresh Gohil, in May 2002. She initially accepted a modest settlement, but later challenged it after discovering that her husband had failed to declare substantial assets, despite a legal duty to make full disclosure in divorce proceedings.

The case became entangled with a major money-laundering investigation, during which Bhadresh Gohil was convicted in connection with a corruption case involving a Nigerian client. In 2010, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) then pursued a Confiscation Order over nearly £28 million linked to his criminal activity.

While the CPS argued that all the assets were proceeds of crime and should be recovered solely through criminal proceedings, the question of Varsha Gohil’s entitlement to a share of legitimate, “untainted" marital assets remained unresolved for years.

According to The Times, the UK Court of Appeal last month finally brought the drawn-out litigation to an end by ruling out any further appeals. This cleared the way for a High Court judgment delivered last year to take effect, awarding Gohil a settlement of around £6,663,172.

In his ruling dated May 28, 2025, Justice Williams delivered a scathing assessment of the husband’s behaviour.

“The husband’s conduct is at the highest end of the scale in terms of dishonesty and its consequences," he said.

He noted that Gohil, who is nearing retirement and has faced health problems over the past 23 years, had managed to remain “financially afloat" despite the prolonged legal ordeal.

The judge calculated that the marital pool of identifiable, untainted, realisable assets amounted to about £6,663,172, compared with total realisable assets of £27,967,337.48, describing this as a “modest 23.82 per cent".

The High Court found that some of the assets in question were derived from legitimate businesses operated during the marriage, and therefore formed part of the marital estate to which Varsha Gohil was entitled.

Justice Williams also reflected on the extraordinary length and complexity of the proceedings, observing that the name Gohil would “linger long in the memories of lawyers and judges across a range of jurisdictions" because of the “tortuous route that the case has followed".

He criticised Bhadresh Gohil’s persistent failure to disclose his true wealth, stating that his actions had subjected his family to the “devastation that the litigation and his criminality have wrought."

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