A magistrate's court on Saturday remanded conman Kiran Patel, who impersonated an officer from the prime minister's office and received security cover in Jammu and Kashmir, was remanded in police custody till April 15 for questioning in connection with a case of usurping a bungalow belonging to a BJP MLA in Ahmedabad.
The officials of Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) brought Patel, 43, from Srinagar on transfer warrant by road in the wee hours of Saturday and produced him before the court for remand. The court sent him in police days custody till April. Patel's lawyer Nisar Vaidya said the DCB had sought 14 days custody.
Open Sesame | Conman Kiran Patel
DCB is probing a cheating case against Patel lodged by Jagdish Chavda, a realtor, who is also the brother of BJP MLA Jawahar Chavda. Patel has been booked for criminal breach of trust (IPC 406), cheating (IPC 420), impersonating public servant (IPC 170) and criminal conspiracy (120B). Patel's wife Malini is also a co-accused in the case who was arrested earlier.
Although Chavda had written to police more than six months ago, the FIR was registered only after Patel was busted in Srinagar for impersonating an officer from PMO.
FIR alleges that Patel came to know about the bungalow which Chavda wanted to sell off. Patel introduced himself an officer from PMO who was also involved in renovating properties and selling them at higher price. He won Chavda's trust and gleaned Rs35 lakh from him to renovate the bungalow. While renovation work was on Chavda went to his native Junagadh and his absence Patel is alleged to have put up a name plate on the bungalow claiming to be its owner and performed "vastu pooja."
In the remand application, DCB has mentioned that it wanted to investigate Patel's claims to have a PhD degree and his claim of having studied at Indian Institute of Management, Trichy. The DCB has found out that Patel gave four cheques, Rs50 lakh each, to Chavda "despite not having such huge amount in his bank balance. This cheques, DCB has said, were used to claim complainant's property. The DCB also wanted to probe people who were behind Patel and participated in the "vastu pooja."
FIR says that Chavda became suspicious of Patel after coming to know about the religious ritual and asked him to finish the renovation work as soon as possible. FIR stated that Patel didn't finish the renovation and disappeared. Later, Chavda received notice from Ahmedabad court informing him that Patel had filed a civil suit claiming the bungalow.
Earlier on March 3, he was arrested by Jammu and Kashmir police for impersonating as a PMO officer. He is facing at five cases in Gujarat.