Ahmedabad: Conman Kiran Patel, who strutted around in Jammu & Kashmir for six months with Z-Plus security as an official from the PMO before being arrested in March, is facing the fourth complaint of cheating in Gujarat.
Gujarat police, who got his custody from their counterparts in the hill state last month, have found his and his wife Malini Patel’s involvement in several cheating and fraud complaints.
Impersonating as a class-I officer
A police official told Free Press Journal on Saturday that a complaint was filed against Patel and his wife on Friday evening for allegedly fleecing a businessman from Morbi of ₹31 lakh impersonating as a class-I officer with contacts in high places.
Patel and Malini met Bharat Patel, a resident of Jodhpur village in Morbi who runs a ceramic machinery manufacturing unit, in 2017 when he was in the process of setting up another unit.
Bharat Patel needed an environment clearance certificate and a licence from the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) in a hurry. Kiran flaunted his so-called connections with high places in the Gujarat Government and promised him to get his work done. According to Bharat Patel’s FIR, Kiran told him this would cost ₹40 lakh to ₹ 45 lakh since the money would be split between politicians and GPCB officials.
In a hurry to get his papers ready, Bharat Patel organised ₹42 lakh and promised to give the rest once he got the necessary clearances. After the money changed hands, Kiran got incommunicado. He stopped taking Bharat Patel’s calls for a long time.
Kiran’s modus operandi
Going by Kiran’s modus operandi in such cases that the police found was to return a small part of money to ensure the victim started believing in him and waited for another long phase.
In keeping with this style, Kiran returned ₹11 lakh to Patel with a promise to repay the rest at the earliest apologising that the work could not be done. However, the latter did not get any money and he finally lodged an FIR in Ahmedabad.
Bharat Patel got suspicious when Kiran and his wife stopped attending to his calls after taking the money. So, according to his police complaint, he checked with the GPCB office and discovered that no application for environment clearance for his upcoming firm was filed at all. On learning that Patel had found this out, Kiran paid ₹11 lakh and then vanished.
While Kiran is already in custody for other offences, his wife who is on bail in these cases, would be arrested again in the fourth case.
Meanwhile, police sources said Kiran would be returned to J&K police after the investigations in the Gujarat cases were complete.
