SRINAGAR: After completing the investigation, the Gujarat police on Monday handed over custody of Kiran Bhai Patel, who posed as a fake ‘PMO official’ in Kashmir, to Srinagar police for further investigation of the high-profile case against him.
According to reliable sources, after completing the investigation by the Ahmedabad Crime Branch, Gujarat police on Monday handed over custody of Kiran Bhai Patel to the Nishat police station in Srinagar for further investigation of the high-profile case. Patel will be sent to the central jail in Srinagar as per the orders of a local official.
A senior police officer also confirmed that Kiran Patel was handed back to the Srinagar police. Kiran was handed over to a team of Gujarat police on court directions for investigation of a case registered against him at Ahmedabad Crime Branch.
It was the Srinagar-based news agency Kashmir Dot Com that first broke this story: “Srinagar police, in a high-profile case, have arrested this conman, a resident of ‘Gujarat,’ allegedly by forged means posing as Additional Director (Strategy & Campaigns) Prime Minister’s Office, New Delhi, at Hotel Lalit in Srinagar on specific input received by CID wing of J&K Police.”
FIR number 19 of 2023 was registered by Srinagar police in Police Station Nishat, which reads: “on 02-03-2023 a reliable information received by Police Station Nishat has revealed that a fraudster, namely Kiran Bhai Patel, son of Jagdesh Bhai Patel, resident of Gujarat, has by virtue of criminal intention indulged in activities within the jurisdiction of this police station and other parts of Kashmir valley and by employing high degree of forged means. Kiran Bhai has impersonated himself as a senior government official of India.”
“The individual, by resorting to cheating, forgery, and impersonation, has duped gullible people and also intentionally induced people to do and also to omit to do activities, under a well-knit plan for securing monetary as well as material benefits,” reads the FIR.
The imposter had taken the J&K administration and security structure for a ride by securing Z-plus security cover, a bulletproof Mahindra Scorpio SUV, official accommodation at a five-star hotel, and much more. According to reports, Patel, who by forged means, was able to get security from the Jammu and Kashmir police and was staying at Hotel Lalit in Room no 1107. The ‘fraudster’ had visited multiple places in Kashmir, including Doodpatri in central Kashmir’s Budgam district, Gulmarg, and the Line of Control (LoC) in Baramulla.
Jammu and Kashmir police had formed a three-member team headed by SP East Srinagar to investigate the case against the alleged impersonator from Gujarat, Kiran Bhai Patel. The J&K Home Department had also initiated an inquiry and appointed Vijay Kumar Bidhuri, IAS, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, as Inquiry Officer to inquire into the various aspects related to the visits of Shri Kiran Patel to Kashmir during the past months and security arrangements made thereof.
The officer was asked to identify the lapses on the part of the Officers/ Officials concerned and submit a detailed report within one week. The time of inquiry had passed, but no information was provided by the government so far.
The Gujarat police had taken custody of Ahmedabad-based Kiran Patel in an FIR days after he was arrested by the J&K Police for apparently pulling off one of the biggest cons in the history of Jammu and Kashmir and is wanted in at least four cases in his home state Gujarat.
On Monday, Patel was handed back to Nishat police station for further investigations of the case. (KDC)
