In a shocking piece of news, a Gujarat man, named Kiran Bhai Patel, has fooled security agenices in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, by posing him as an official from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and in his con play, he went on to receive VIP treatments from Z-plus security to an elite accommodation. When the scam came to light, he has been sent to judicial custody. 

Donning a dapper look, Patel conned the security and administration officials by citing that he is from PMO and that he came to check the hotel facilities in Srinagar. During his play, Patel got a Z-plus security cover, a bulletproof Mahindra Scorpio car, and an official accommodation at a five-star hotel in Srinagar. With his tricking tag as a PMO official, Patel had also held a series of meetings with top officials of the administration and also visited several tourist destinations with a high-profile security cover. 

According to reports, Patel has claimed that he was the additional director for strategy and campaigns in the Prime Minister's Office and he also had posted several videos of his visits to Kashmir on Twitter. In these visuals, he was seen guarded by paramilitary personnel. While meeting several IAS officials in the state, Patel said that he has close contacts with high-ranking bureaucrats and politicians in Delhi. 

He enjoyed the VIP treatment till March 3, when his scam came to light. The security agencies got suspicious about Patel as there was no intimation about any VIP movement in the airport when he came to Srinagar. Shocked by the development, the security personnel had conducted a check on him and came to know that he has conned them. The officials have recovered Patel's forged identity cards from his hotel room. 

Patel was arrested by the officials and he was produced before a court. It has been reported that when the police planned to keep his arrest a secret, the news of his arrest came to light after a magistrate sent him to judicial custody. Furthermore, the officials have also initiated action against two police officials under the grounds of failing to check his credentials. 

Identified as Kiran Patel, a copy of FIR accessed reads that “Kiran Bhai has impersonated himself as senior government official of India. The said individual,by resorting to cheating,forgery & impersonation has duped gullible people….”
👇🏻picture of Kiran with his security cover pic.twitter.com/l8JuTyCvZF

— Ieshan Wani (@Ieshan_W) March 17, 2023