An undated photo of Kiran Patel with his security. Kiran Patel has been arrested for cheating, forgery and impersonation as an as an additional director.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Kiran Patel, who has been arrested by Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Police for impersonating being a top ranking official of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has apparently cheated many people in Gujarat promising government contracts or clearances.
After his arrest by the Police in the Union Territory, several people went public accusing him of cheating and fraud in Ahmedabad, Vadodara and even North Gujarat.
“He came to my office thrice and promised me to get contracts from the state government flaunting his connections with the politicians and bureaucrats,” a businessman from Ahmedabad told The Hindu.
He has allegedly duped several people of more than Rs 5 crore as per the cases of cheating registered in Ahmedabad and Vadodara and other places.
Now, Gujarat’s Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) has reportedly joined the probe along with the Police of the Union Territory to investigate how he operated his network and who helped him in giving him access to the officials and functionaries in the government.
In Gujarat, he faces multiple Police cases of cheating, criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy but reportedly faced no Police action and went around doing his business with his powerful connections.
Way back in 2017, he had duped a Policeman’s relative of Rs one crore while posing as an official of the PMO.
In fact, in this January this year, he apparently organised an event related to G20 in Gujarat in which several people including some retired bureaucrats participated in a five star hotel in the city.
After the news of arrest became public, his wife Malini Patel told local media that her husband was innocent and did no wrong insisting that his arrest was some “conspiracy.”
“He had gone there for the development work. He cannot do anything wrong. He is an engineer and wanted to contribute to the development of J&K,” Malini Patel was quoted as saying by the local dailies.
Interestingly, he used to post videos and pictures of his visit to various parts of J&K and other activities in Gujarat and elsewhere. He his Twitter account, he has described himself as “PHD (Commonwealth Uni, Virginia) MBA (IIM TRICHY), M. Tech (Computer Science) , B. E. Computer (L D Engineering), Thinker, Strategist, Analyst, Campaign Manager.”
