Influencer with over 1 million followers arrested for 'honey trapping' builder in Gujarat: Report

A social media influencer with over 1 million followers was arrested for "honey trapping" a builder in Gujarat's Surat.

As per a report by Hindustan Times, Kirti Patel was arrested recently after being on the run since June 2024.

Absconding for over 10 months, Patel was arrested in Ahmedabad. Apart from honey trapping case, Patel has also been allegedly involved in "land grabbing".

Alok Kumar, DCP Zone-1, Surat said that an FIR was registered for "honey trapping" and there were five accused in total. While four were arrested, Patel was on the run.

"We had arrested her based on the warrant issued by the court and produced here before the court. She has demanded a ransom of 2 crores from a builder," he told ANI.

Changing her location constantly while also using different SIM cards and IP addresses is how she evaded the arrest for 10 months, the report said.

Patel had demanded a ransom of Rs 2 crore from the builder, the police said. They added that she was arrested form Sarkhej in Ahmedabad with the help of technical and cyber team, the report mentioned.

Kirti Patel, who goes by the name Kirti Adalja on Instagram, has 1.3 million followers. Even though she was on a run, she kept posting videos on her account, with the latest one posted last week.

She is also active on YouTube with over 197K subscribers. She started posting on YouTube in the year 2019.

As reported by HT, in one of her shared clips she "thanked her supporters" for being with her, sharing a news clip related to an FIR being quashed. Patel even "openly issued threats online" as the police was still searching her, the report noted.