Gujarati posing as top PMO official, held in Srinagar

Kiran Patel was booked for cheating, forgery, impersonation and duping gullible people, “under a well-knit plan”

A Gujarati man, who posed as Additional Director, Strategy and Campaigns, at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in New Delhi, was arrested in Srinagar and sent to judicial custody on Thursday, by a local court.

“The matter is being investigated,” a police officer told  The Hindu.

Identified as Kiran Patel, son of Jagdesh Patel, the police are investigating “criminal intention to indulge in activities in Srinagar and other parts of the Kashmir Valley, by employing a high degree of forged means”.

Preliminary police investigation suggested that Mr. Patel “impersonated as a senior government official of India”. He was arrested in the first week of March by the Police Station Nishat in Srinagar. He has been booked for cheating, forgery, impersonation and duping gullible people “under a well-knit plan for securing monetary as well as material benefits”.

Mr. Patel was staying in Srinagar’s top hotel, Hotel Lalit, and toured multiple tourist places in Kashmir, including Doodpatri in Central Kashmir’s Budgam district, as a senior official. He managed to keep top officials, including a Sub-District Magistrate (SDM) and Deputy Commissioners on their toes during his stay, sources said.