A Jammu and Kashmir court on Thursday denied bail to a Gujarat resident who has been arrested for allegedly impersonating an official of the prime minister’s office.
The chief judicial magistrate, Srinagar, Raja Mohammad Tasleem said in an order that there is material to suggest that the accused man, Kiran Bhai Patel, had met high-ranking administrative and police officials and may have received money from them for different purposes.
This aspect, the court said, has not been looked into and therefore a detailed investigation is necessary.
Patel was arrested from a five-star hotel in Srinagar on March 3. He had been impersonating an additional director for strategy and campaigns in the prime minister’s office. The authorities had said that Patel got facilities normally given to officials from the prime minister’s office, including a bulletproof car, security personnel and official accommodation at a five-star hotel in Jammu and Kashmir.
He was booked on charges of cheating and forgery on March 2.
In its order on Thursday, the court said that there were apprehensions that Patel could contact and “definitely try to win over prosecution witnesses” as well as destroy evidence that is not yet collected by the investigating agency.
The order stated that there are some more persons connected with Patel in the alleged conspiracy, adding that this aspect also needs to be looked into.
“If at this crucial stage the accused is admitted to bail it shall definitely destroy the very fabric of the investigation,” the order said.
The magistrate also said that it was “spectacularly evident” that Patel prima facie “forged and manufactured some documents including some visiting cards” to deceive not just one person or a group but “extremely elevated class of the society including high officials of the civil administration and police authorities”.
Earlier this month, Patel was on his third visit to Kashmir posing as a government official when the allegations came to light. He was apprehended after the Criminal Investigation Department of the Jammu and Kashmir Police gave information to local authorities about the arrival of an alleged impersonator at Srinagar’s Lalit Grand hotel.
The police said that three cases have been registered against him in different police stations in his home state of Gujarat, involving allegations of criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy.
His verified Twitter profile identifies him as a “thinker, strategist, analyst, campaign manager”. He also claims to have a doctorate from the Commonwealth University in Virginia, a Master of Business Administration degree from the Indian Institute Of Management in Tiruchirappalli as well as a Master of Technology degree in computer science and a Bachelor of Engineering degree in computer engineering.
Videos that he posted on Twitter show Patel trudging through snow-covered tourist spots in Kashmir, surrounded by a posse of paramilitary personnel and local police. Another video on his Twitter timeline shows the national flag fluttering at the office of the Pulwama deputy commissioner.
The Congress on March 18 had said that if a person could roam around in sensitive areas of the Union Territory by making a fake card, then the episode raises questions about the government’s intelligence mechanism.
“Our three essential questions are – can a PMO officer get Z+ security, should Z+ security be given and is Z+ security availed so easily,” Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera had said. “It is very important to know from which level the instructions to give security to a thug came.”
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and senior National Conference leader Omar Abdullah accused the Union territory administration of being incompetent.
“My colleagues are not provided security even after so many requests,” he added. “When they have to travel and seek an escort, the police say they do not have any vehicle or personnel... It is fine that you do not have a vehicle, we cannot complain. But when a fraudster comes from outside, then you have the vehicle available.”
Also read:
The unsolved mystery of the fake PMO officer in Kashmir
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