The Crime Branch police are investigating a fraud case against alleged conman Kiran Patel. Officers are investigating how he received visiting cards identifying him as a Prime Minister’s Office official and how he was assigned a government mobile phone.
In a statement, Ahmedabad Crime Branch(ACB) on Wednesday said Kiran Patel got visiting cards saying he was the ‘additional director (strategy and campaigns) PMO, New Delhi’ from a shop named Akanskha Creation near Maninagar Crossroads in February. When the shop employee asked him for an authorization letter, he promised to produce it later and got 10 cards printed for Rs 100.
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ACB officials also went to the shop where conman Kirna Patel bought his sim card, but it was closed. Cops had written to the telecom company asking how he got the phone number. On March 2, Srinagar police caught Patel in Room 1107 of Hotel Lalit in Srinagar. He was staying there as a VVIP guest and had Z+ security cover.
The crime branch is investigating Kiran Patel in connection with a cheating case filed by Jagdish Chavda, a resident of Shilaj and a brother of BJP member Jawahar Chavda. Earlier, the investigation revealed that his social media handle tags him as a “creative consultant” with the Union Government of India.
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“He used these visiting cards in his meetings with four bureaucrats, some senior BJP leaders, and police officers in Srinagar during his last visit in February and March,” said a source privy to the matter. When asked about taking back the cards, the official shared: “We have now learnt that he would simply say that he is running short of cards or that he forgot to carry extra for the day ahead,” the official replied.
Patel and his accomplices – Amit Pandya and Jay Sitapara – would call a senior police officer in Srinagar to arrange for a hotel, Z+ security, and a bulletproof vehicle. Shortly before he was called out, “he reprimanded a senior police officer for not providing a mobile-signal jammer to accompany his escort in Srinagar.”
Back home in Gujarat, Pandya and Sitapara sold dreams of plots for sale in the Valley. “The trio would target senior leaders and retired government officers. We have good reason to believe he was backed by bigwigs. Access to liberties is only when one knows what the liberties are. Patel seemed in complete know of official protocols,” shared an investigating officer from Gujarat Police.
Kiran Patel has been charged with violating IPC Sections 419, 420, 467, 468, and 471 (cheating by impersonation, forgery of valuable security, forgery for the purpose of cheating and producing forged documents as genuine).
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