Man posing as PMO officer has at least four cases in Gujarat, told court 'has been nice to the citizens of the country'

Kiran Patel, said to be in his late 40s, arrested by Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) police for allegedly impersonating as an official from Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has at least four cases registered against in different parts of Gujarat, most of them are related to cheating. However, Patel has told the court in J&K in the bail application that "he has always been nice to the citizens of the country and has no criminal antecedents of any nature."

Court documents and police sources confirmed to DH that Patel is facing criminal cases in Naroda police station in Ahmedabad, Bayad, Aravalli and in Anand districts. In another case registered with Vadodara's Raopura police station, the Gujarat high court quashed the FIR in 2020 after complainant and Patel settled the matter outside the court. The cases were registered from 2017 to 2019.

The documents stated that he was facing charges including breach of trust (IPC 406), cheating (IPC 420), criminal conspiracy (120B), among others. In the Aravalli case, he, along with other accused, is alleged to have cheated a few people of Rs1.25 crore while posing as tobacco businessmen.

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The fourth case is said to be related to cheque bounce. In a press release, the Jammu and Kashmir police has mentioned about the three cases against Patel, who is a resident of Ghodasar in Maninagar locality in Ahmedabad.

On Friday, outside Patel's house, his wife Malini told reporters that her husband was innocent and had gone to J&K for "development related work." She refused to give details of how her husband had letterhead claiming to work for PMO. Defending her husband, she said, "My husband is a computer engineer and I am a doctor. My husband has been framed. I can't comment any further."

She added that anything related to her case will be addressed by her lawyer Nisar Vaidya. When contacted, Vaidya told DH, "The case against him is false. He (Patel) was already given security cover and there was no question of impersonation. I can't divulge further but it seems there was some confusion which led to his arrest."

In the bail application, DH has accessed, Malini has filed on her husband's behalf, she has stated, "the applicant (Patel) is an innocent man, who has always respected the law of the land and has been nice to the citizens of the country and has no criminal antecedents of any nature." It adds further, "the applicant is of good reputation and has considerable reputation in the eyes of society and the incarceration of the applicant is completely baseless and tantamount to damage his reputation."

On his Twitter account, Patel 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." A senior police official with the Gujarat police said that information is being collected on Patel to help J&K police.

The J&K police's press note stated that Patel was picked up from Lalit hotel on March 2 after its CID passed information about Patel impersonating as PMO officer. The police allegedly found ten fake visiting cards and two mobile phones from his possession. He was arrested on March 3.

Patel has two Twitter accounts which are full of pictures and videos of his Kashmir visits, posing alongside security officials. The Gujarat Congress on Friday termed the episode as a "major security breach and demanded answers from the BJP government." Gujarat Congress spokesperson Manish Doshi said, "who gave him (Patel) security cover? Why did the government fail to detect a fake officer from the PMO? The central government must answer."