Fake PMO official booked in three cases in Gujarat

A day after a conman from Ahmedabad was arrested for posing as a top official of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), it has come to light that this isn’t the first time he duped people and the government machinery in the name of the PM.
He has allegedly duped several people of Rs 3. 25 crore according to three cheating cases registered in Gujarat, s aid police. Patel was arrested on his third ‘VVIP’ visit to Jammu and Kashmir. He passed himself off as an additional director (strategy and campaigns) in the PMO each time. The Gujarat Police said he has been visiting the valley “for review of development projects” since 2015.
“Kiran Patel visited various areas in Jammu and Kashmir allegedly to monitor development projects like the Pir Pan jal tunnel project and redevelopment of Lal Chowk in Srinagar. He also claimed to have been tasked by the PMO to instil confidence in the people of Kashmir and to motivate them to believe in the Union government,” said a police officer close to the investigation.
The Gujarat Police also suspect him of having visited four other states – Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh – posing as a bureaucrat. Kiran Patel, a resident of Ghodasar, runs Modified Concept Private Limited, an audit firm on CG Road in Navrangpura area of Ahmedabad.
The first case against him was filed in Naroda of Ahmedabad in 2017. Later, a complaint was filed in Aravalli’s Bayad area and another in Vadodara’s Raopura area in August 2019.
On February 23, 2017, a DJ from Naroda named Rahul Parmar filed a complaint of cheating, breach of trust, and criminal conspiracy against Patel and four of his family members for allegedly duping him of Rs 1 crore by taking 16 cars from him and failing to return them. The second complaint was filed by Paritosh Shah, a businessman from Paldi in Ahmeda bad. He alleged that Patel and his two aides engaged him to install lights and other decorations for a garba event at Navlakhi ground in Vadodara but failed to pay Rs 1 crore. A schoolteacher named Ashish Patel from Radodara village in Bayad filed a complaint of cheating against Kiran Patel and his three family members on August 22, 2019. Ashish told police the a ccused lured him by promising hefty profit if he invested in their tobacco and cattle-feed business. He paid them a total of Rs1. 25 crore between April 1, 2014, and May 19, 2016, but did not get any returns.
Attended meetings held for BJP workers
Kiran Patel usually attended meetings for BJP workers. He was seen roaming around Kamalam, the BJP’s headquarters in Koba, the CMO, and the secretariat to establish his links with bigwigs in the government and the saffron party. A party leader claimed that Patel had taken Rs 25 lakh from him. Patel held a precursor for an international event hosted in the state. He also shared his family members’ pictures with several senior BJP leaders. He floated a group named after PM Narendra Modi and charged registration fees from those who wanted to join the group.
Conman sent to judicial custody
On Friday, a Srinagar court remanded Kiran Patel to judicial custody for 15 days. Patel had been arrested from The Lalit hotel in Srinagar on March 3, following a tipoff by Jammu and Kashmir CID. At least 10 fake visiting cards and two mobile phones were seized from him.
The details of his con act became public after he was produced in court on Thursday. According to police sources, there were three more persons accompanying Patel, but they managed to escape.
Patel was taken to Nishat police station, where an FIR was registered for cheating, forgery and impersonation. A team led by SP, east Srinagar, is investigating the case.
Impersonating a high-ranking PMO official, Patel moved around in a bulletproof vehicle with Z-plus security, enjoyed five-star st ay, and threatened bureaucrats and cops with transfers during several trips to Jammu and Kashmir, before his cover was blown up.
Gave ‘updates’ on development projects in Kashmir
In a bid to project himself as an officer of the PMO, Kiran Patel gave important updates and reviewed various development projects in the Kashmir Valley. In certain posts, he gave updates about the renovation of Lal Chowk in Srinagar and announced that Srinagar would be developed as a smart city.
He also gave updates about the Pir Panjal tunnel work and stressed how the government is serious about the development of Kashmir. Apart from Kashmir, he also shared various government notifications and photographs purportedly showing the new building of the Parliament under the Central Vista project.
Holds fake PhD degree from the US
Posting a photograph of his certificate, Kiran Patel, in February this year, announced he had been awarded a doctorate from a university in Virginia, US.
He claimed he had been awarded a PhD for his “Projecting Human as Brand” thesis. Apart from this, he also claimed in several social media posts that he had been honoured with a PhD from a university in the Kingdom of Tonga, a Polynesian country. His other posts show he had got an engineering degree from LD Engineering College and then did his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Tiruchirappalli. Gujarat police officers said he did not have any of the degrees he claimed on social media.
Paldi resident was Patel’s first victim
Complaint 1
Kiran Patel’s alleged first victim was Paritosh Shah, a Paldi resident who runs an event management company. Kiran and his aides — a couple from the Satellite area — allegedly duped him of Rs 1 crore.
Shah, who lives in Sparsh Aspire, told police, “Kiran Patel and his aides — Dipesh and Dhara Sheth from Sanjay Tower near Shyamal Crossroads — first gained his confidence by awarding him a sub-contract of two Gujarat government contracts. They gave me a lighting and decorating contract at the Statue of Unity in Kevadia. They also gave me contracts for different government krushi mahotsavs for which I received timely payments. ”
Later, in September 2018, Patel and the Sheths asked Shah to provide lighting and decoration for a garba event at Navlakhi ground in Vadodara. Since he did not face payment issues for the SoU and krushi mahostav events, Shah decided to work for them as a sub-contractor during the Navratri festival from October 10 to October 18, 2018.
“They gave me Rs 20 lakh in instalments. However, despite several requests, they did not give me the remaining Rs 1 crore,” he told police.
When Shah asked Patel for the money, the latter allegedly threatened him. “Patel said he had connections in Delhi. He threatened to abduct and kill me if I ever sought money again,” Shah told police.
The Raopura police of Vadod ara then filed a complaint of breach of trust, cheating, criminal intimidation, using abusive words and abetment against Patel and the Sheths.
Kiran Patel first posed as PMO official in 2017
Complaint 2
The first record of Kiran Patel posing as an official at the Prime Minister’s Office was in 2017 when he and his family members conned a retired PSI’s son of Rs 1 crore. He invoked the PMO’s powers to evade legal action.
Rahul Parmar, a resident of Naroda whose father Mitha Parmar had retired as a sub-inspector from Vatva police, filed a complaint of cheating aga inst Kiran, his brother and other family members.
He said Kiran’s brother Manish and other family members convinced him to join their business of renting cars to the Vadtal Swaminarayan temple.
Parmar said he and his friends gave Manish 16 cars worth Rs 1 crore in January and February 2017, following which Manish an d his family members wentincommunicado.
Later, Kiran assured Parmar that he would return the cars or the money. “Kiran said he was a youth wing leader of the BJP and had connections to politicians in 20 states. He claimed he was a Class 1 officer with
the PMO and managed its social media accounts. Kiran also gave me his phone number, allegedly allotted by the Guj arat government,” Parmar told police. Interestingly, the phone number was from a series used only by the state’s senior ministers, IPS and IAS officers.
Parmar said Kiran claimed to know senior bureaucrats personally and boasted that he would be given a ticket for the Daskroi assembly seat.
Govt teacher in Bayad cheated of Rs 1.25 crore
Complaint 3
A resident of Bayad in Aravalli had on August 22, 2017 filed a complaint of cheating against Kiran Patel, his brother Manish Patel, wife Darshana Patel and their maternal uncle Vitthal Patel for cheating him of Rs 1. 25 crore by luring him with a “profitable” business. Ashish Patel, a resident of Radodara village in Bayad, was teaching in a government primary school in Shivpura village i n Kapadwanj taluka of Kheda when he met Vitthal.
Ashish said that Vitthal told him that his nephew Jagdish ran a business of tobacco and cattle-feed trading in Anand. Vitthal told Ashish that he would get g ood returns if he invested in the business.
Convinced by Vitthal, a retired bank employee, Ashish gave money to Manish and his wife Darshana as and when they asked for it. In 2015-16, Ashish ended up pay ing Rs 1. 75 crore for which Kiran was a guarantor.
Later, Kiran’s family members returned Rs 50 lakh to Ashish and whenever he demanded the rest of the money, they refused. Ashish alleged that Kiran had given an advertisement in a newspaper saying that he did not have any relation with Manish and Darshana so that he is not held liable.
Ashish then filed a complaint of che ating, breach of trust and criminal conspiracy against Kiran, Manish, Darshana and Vitthal.