Conman held for posing as PMO staffer now booked for cheating event management firm owner

AHMEDABAD: Alleged conman Kiran Patel was on Saturday booked on the charge of cheating a businessman from Ahmedabad by posing as an official from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), taking the number of FIRs against him to six, police said.

The city crime branch registered a first information report (FIR) against Patel on the complaint of one Kishor Chandarana, who owns an event management firm here.

Patel allegedly deceived the complainant with the promise of getting him a big project in Jammu and Kashmir.

Patel was first arrested in March by the J&K police for posing as a PMO official and brought here on a transfer warrant by the Ahmedabad crime branch on April 8 in connection with another cheating case registered against him, said officials.

According to the crime branch, Patel identified himself as an additional director’ in the PMO by sending a visiting card to the complainant on WhatsApp and claimed that he had been given the responsibility of the development of Kashmir.

He lured the complainant by promising to offer him the contract for an all-India level medical conference at Pulwama in J&K and made him spend Rs 3.5 lakh, said police.

Chandarana told police that he spent the money on Patel by organising an event in a five-star hotel in Ahmedabad under the banner of G20 summit and paying for Patel’s air travel from Ahmedabad to Srinagar and his stay at a five-star hotel there.

In the latest case, Patel has been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), and 170 (pretending to hold office as public servant).

Patel was brought to Ahmedabad in connection with a case related to usurping a bungalow belonging to a senior citizen in a posh locality of the city in which his wife Malini Patel was arrested on March 28 as a co-accused.

With this, Patel has been shown as an accused in six FIRs, said officials.

Apart from the FIR in Srinagar of J&K, Patel has also been named in cases registered at Naroda police station in Ahmedabad, Raopura police station in Vadodara and Bayad in Aravalli district, said officials. (PTI)